


A New Dynamic

by Rulerofyouall



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alpha Eddie Thawne, Alpha Harrison Wells | Eobard Thawne, Alpha Iris West, Alpha Joe West, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Beta Caitlin Snow, Beta Cisco Ramon, Don't Like Don't Read, Eddie Thawne Lives, F/F, F/M, Human Experimentation, Knotting, M/M, Mpreg, Multi, Omega Barry Allen, Pack Family, Protective Barry Allen, Protective Caitlin Snow, Protective Cisco Ramon, Protective Eddie Thawne, Protective Iris West, Protective Joe West, Shady Harrison Wells, Wow this is a lot darker than I planned it to be
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-01 10:59:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 23
Words: 49,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11484972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rulerofyouall/pseuds/Rulerofyouall
Summary: Eobard Thawne was originally angry when a metahuman was able to get the upper hand in a fight against the Flash and infect many people with a mutagen that changed their DNA to make them either an alpha, beta, or omega, but after seeing that the timeline remained mostly intact, he decided that this could be played to his advantage. Luckily, the metahuman helpfully (and a bit smugly) informed the scientists, police departments, and news reporters about the effects of her attack. Caitlin, Cisco, Barry, Eddie, and Iris for some reason all feel strong protective urges as well as....other urges. Joe just wants to know when he is going to get two more sons and another daughter through marriage. When Eddie and Iris find out about the Flash's identity, all five of them buy a house and live as a unit, but Eobard Thawne wants to find a way to torture the Flash in every possible way before returning to his time line.





	1. The Mutagen and Moving In

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own the Flash. If I did, Eddie never would have died. Sorry if anyone is out of character!

"Our metahuman's name is Samantha Hunter." Cisco announced to the room before he took a sip of his slurpee and smiled.

Barry nodded, seemingly contemplating something. "Powers?"

"She seems to be able to manipulate airborne pathogens and mutagens." Caitlin had a bit of excitement in her voice. "If only she were willing, we may be able to find cures and vaccines to all kinds of diseases."

"First," Wells interrupted her. "Stop her."

Barry nodded and grabbed his suit. "You think the way I fought Kyle Nimbus will work?" he asked hopefully.

"It might, but she doesn't actually turn into anything." Caitlin responded as he flashed away.

Barry ran for miles and miles even though it took only a short amount of time. Finally, he located the metahuman outside of Jitters. There were many police cars already surrounding her, and all of them, including Joe and Eddie, were holding their guns firmly.

"Samantha Hunter." he vibrated his voice to make him unrecognizable, and Joe shot him a relieved look.

The metahuman turned around and smirked a bit. "You are too late, Flash."

"Really?" he was surprised and faltered a bit.

"Not all mutagens are visible to the naked eye, dear Flash." she shook her head and spoke as if he were two years old. "I have had people drop off papers explaining exactly what the mutagen is and what it does at the CCPD....for your convenience." Samantha grinned victoriously.

Barry straightened. "You are going to have to come with me where you can't hurt anyone anymore."

"Barry!" his com crackled. It was Caitlin. "She's releasing more of the mutagen!"

Suddenly, Barry found himself pausing. It was as if he was held in place by some unknown force.

"You see, Flash. I have set out two of the three mutagens that I plan to so far. Not all of them affects everyone; there are always some with lingering immunity." her eyes flickered over to him. "Like yourself. Such a fine specimen you are."

The speedster interrupted her. "I don't want to fight you. If you come with me willingly, you may-"

"Shhh." she silenced him. "As I said, only two of the three mutagens are out there. The third, well, that one is the most potent. It should take care of the remaining five percent."

"Get her, Barry!" Dr. Wells's voice shocked Barry out of his stupor, and he launched himself at the woman. He glanced briefly at all of the people. All of them, including Samantha Hunter, were frozen due to his speed. He sped off to the pipeline where he placed the metahuman.

"You are too late, Flash!" she screamed as the door closed. "All three of them are out there!"

Swallowing hard, Barry fled the pipeline. What had his moments of hesitation cost Central City-maybe even beyond this city?

"You hesitated." Wells seemed angry when Barry collapsed onto a chair; for some reason, the day's events were heavy on him. What had she placed on the city?

"I don't know. As soon as she started releasing that third type....I just couldn't find a way to move for a bit." Barry sighed.

Caitlin looked worried. "Maybe we should do some testing?"

Wells nodded. "Do it." he rolled out of the room. Wells was surprised that he was able to keep his temper in check throughout that encounter; Barry could have just ruined his timeline. Well, there was only one way to check.

"GIDEON," he announced his presence. "Show me the future."

The newspaper article was pulled up again. It was seemingly identical except for one feature. The author was named Iris West-Thawne. Wells narrowed his eyes in suspicion. How could that have caused Iris to choose Eddie over Barry? Or was there no decision at all?

"Tell me what happens to Bartholomew Henry Allen." Wells instructed.

"Yes, Mr. Thawne."

At least his name didn't get changed again.

A new newspaper article that Eobard Thawne had never seen before was next. It was a marriage announcement for the marriage of Edward Thawne, Francisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Iris West, and Bartholomew Allen.

"Interesting." Wells raised an eyebrow. It seemed as if all five of them had taken the surname West-Thawne; was there any reason for that?

He wheeled back into the Cortex where Caitlin was being oddly thorough in her examination.

"You smell different." she commented as she examined some of his blood cells.

"Um...thanks?" Barry sounded uncertain. "I did just get out of a fight, guys, and I haven't showered."

"We know that." Cisco scoffed. "You usually don't smell that great after a fight, but this time you do." he looked at his best friend suspiciously. "Did you make a detour through a perfume shop?"

"No." the speedster declared.

"Did you find anything?" Wells inquired.

Caitlin bit her lip in concentration. "There is definitely something different about his DNA, and his cellular regeneration seems to be accepting it rather than working to get rid of it."

"She did say it was potent." Barry remembered.

"Yes," the doctor straightened and turned to her patient before holding out two cups. "I need you to urinate in this one, and in the other, I need a sample of your seminal fluid."

Cisco spit out his slurpee. "You want him to-" he glanced at the cup.

Caitlin nodded. "I want to see if something is different about your gametes."

"Could we just wait until the CCPD releases the information Hunter left behind?" Barry asked weakly, staring at the cups.

The doctor pursed her lips. "Oh, all right." she put the cups away. "But I want to do a body scan."

Meanwhile, Eddie sipped his coffee thoughtfully as he went over some of the information Hunter had left. It seemed very...surreal. Samantha Hunter was the type of person who wanted to change the world for the better, but she had a pretty warped way of doing it. She wanted everyone to get along and be open to all sorts of relationships. That was understandable, but she thought that to do this she had to change everyone on a cellular level.

Eddie briefly glanced at his hand. How had he been changed? It was obvious that everyone in at least Central City had been affected by one of the three mutagens.

The first mutagen turned people into what she called an 'Alpha.' According to her, they were the dominant ones, and they could be either male or female. However, she explicitly described how they had changed physically. After a little while once the mutated DNA had been fully accepted and new proteins were being created by the cells, these alphas would be able to form a knot, which was apparently a bulb sort of thing in a penis that locks two people together. Even weirder, it says that both male and female alphas would be able to impregnate others. Eddie paused; did that mean that some females would grow a penis?

Going to the next mutagen, he found that these affected individuals were termed 'Beta.' They seemed pretty similar to how humans normally are, and Hunter said that the change would not take as long as the change would for the other two mutagens. However, one difference was that these betas had a heightened sense of smell. Other than that, females could get pregnant, and males could impregnate. It seemed similar to how things used to be.

The third type gave him cause for concern. They were called 'Omegas' and were either male or female, but both could get pregnant. Hunter explained that these omegas would go into a heat that would release a scent to attract alphas and such. They were self-lubricating, and apparently, these individuals were more submissive. Eddie didn't understand how Samantha Hunter could know if an individual would have a more dominant or submissive personality based off of her mutagens; it just didn't seem right. He was concerned about this though since apparently the Flash would be an omega because this mutagen was much more potent than the others. That meant that every now and then there would be a time where he went into this heat, and Central City would remain unguarded. Plus, it seemed like the perfect time for his enemies to get him.

Joe had shared similar concerns, and he still looked worried.

The final section was the most interesting. It was about the amount of people in a relationship, and he was surprised to find that it apparently was not two. Hunter described that the ideal amount for a relationship would be either five or six with different types of people (alphas, betas, and omegas). Apparently, having an omega in the relationship would be ideal, but since they only make up five percent of the population, it would not happen every time.

This, of course, meant that Eddie had to go talk to Iris. Glancing at his coffee cup, he found that he had been sipping air for the last five minutes without noticing; sighing, he decided that this would be a good excuse to leave for the day. It was the end of his shift anyway.

Texting Iris, he told her to meet him at Jitters. She had a day off from work today, so he decided it would be a good time to talk about the relationship thing. He didn't know why yet, but he found that he really liked and needed the five or six people that Hunter had called a 'pack.' It was probably apart of the mutagen.

"Eddie," Iris greeted and stood up to kiss him.

He laughed, and the two of them got identical Flash drinks.

"Off the record, by the way." he started out, and Iris shot him a curious look.

"Okay," she leaned forward playfully. "Are you about to tell me something you aren't supposed to?"

Eddie thought this over. "Probably. Singh wants to inform the public ASAP about the effects of that metahuman, Samantha Hunter, but he wants to be careful since some of the things we found aren't really child appropriate."

Iris gestured for him to continue.

"This lady, she must have been crazy." he laughed nervously. "But I'm feeling like a really want, no need, what she described."

"You were very close to her while she was releasing those mutagens," Iris looked worried.

"I suppose." Eddie started. "But it affected the entire city."

The reporter gestured to herself in questioning.

"Including you." the detective responded. "She described how there were three different mutagens. One made people something called an alpha, the second a beta, and the third an omega." he explained to her exactly what had been written before the pack paragraph.

Iris nodded in understanding. "That sounds so alien...so fictional. I never imagined that a male would be able to get pregnant or a female would be able to impregnate people." she bit her lip. "What do you think we are?"

"I don't know yet." Eddie shrugged. "It is probably going to take some time to develop a test, and it is definitely going to take some time for the changes to occur. Though, there isn't much changing for the beta population, so they may be done already.

She nodded. "I'm getting the feeling that isn't all you have to say." she said dryly.

"No," he swallowed before saying it. "As I said before, this is something that after hearing it, I feel like we need. Hunter said that the best amount for a relationship is five." he stated.

Iris sat in shock for a little bit before responding. "Yeah, I guess I can see the appeal to that." she admitted.

"So you want to search for more people?" Eddie inquired. "I have a copy of the papers in my bag." he explained lowly.

The reporter nodded. "Actually, I have some people in mind if you don't mind some boys."

"Of course not." the detective looked hopeful. "I had some in mind as well though."

"For me, my three just feel right." she replied forcefully. "They are our age, and we've known them for a while. All three of them have jobs, and we all care strongly about each other. Even you." she nudged him a bit.

"My three have those qualities as well." he narrowed his eyes. "Let me guess: we're thinking about the same people?"

"Depends on what you are thinking." Iris stated. "Read my mind."

Eddie grinned. "You know that according to this Hunter girl, people who are...bonded can feel what each other is feeling and sometimes know each other's thoughts."

"So, we are bonded?" the reporter sneakily smirked.

"At least I think so." the detective ran his hand through his hair. "We're together, and we've...done it."

"Had sex?" Iris inquired.

Eddie nodded.

"So read my mind." she grinned happily.

"I'm pretty sure you and I are thinking about the same people." he looked at her. "Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin?"

Iris nodded, smiling widely. "Now that you mention it, I feel like we need them."

"Yeah," Eddie sipped his drink before groaning. "I know exactly how you feel."

"You want to go ask them?" the reporter asked hopefully.

The detective looked nervous. "We'd have to tell them about it."

"You trust a reporter over your own forensic scientist?" she raised an eyebrow.

He laughed out loud at that. "I guess you are right. Let's go."

And they went. Marching into the STAR Labs Cortex with a mission, they were surprised to find Barry on some sort of hospital bed, and Caitlin was looking at some sort of image. Cisco was in the background still drinking a slurpee, and Dr. Wells was absent at the moment.

The most surprising thing? Barry was wearing a scarlet suit. The most famous scarlet suit in Central City.

"Barry?" Iris managed out in surprise.

He looked up. "Iris!" He looked down again and saw the suit. "Joe's going to kill me."

"Dad knows!" she looked furious. "Barry, why didn't you tell me?"

"I really wanted to!" he looked a little frightened off of the power emanating from her voice. "Joe didn't want you to know." the speedster looked up with the best puppy eyes he could manage.

Iris forced herself to be calm as she saw the eyes. It wasn't Barry's fault; he wanted to tell them. "All right." she squeezed her eyes shut as she imagined flowers. "Okay."

Barry relaxed.

"Hey, Barry?" this was Caitlin's voice; she sounded kind of concerned. "Your scan is showing that some structures in you are changing."

"Really?" he sped over to the image. "That's...not right."

"Yeah," the doctor looked nervous. "If I didn't know you were a man, I would have thought this was the beginnings of a female's reproductive system."

Cisco winced a bit. "Dude, that sucks." he sipped his slurpee.

"That actually probably has something to do with why we came over here." Eddie started.

Caitlin looked curious. "And why is that?"

"I have a copy of the info Hunter left at the CCPD. Barry was affected by the third mutagen, I believe. It was the potent one that she sent out at a close range." he gave the papers to the other three, and they read them over.

"Oh wow." Cisco let the straw fall from his mouth. "This is almost Star Trek-quality material."

"I'm guessing you didn't come here just to show us this information." Caitlin took a wild guess.

Iris nodded. "Yeah...did you guys read the section on packs?"

"Caitlin and I have read it once. Barry? Probably about five times." Cisco shrugged.

"Seven." Barry subconsciously corrected.

"Eddie and I want to know if you three would be interested in...joining us in dating and living together and all the related...activities." Iris requested.

The three of them stared at the others in shock for a bit.

"Okay." the speedster agreed. "Cool." it wasn't like his crush on her was a secret or something anymore. Besides, Eddie was a nice, attractive man. Cisco and Caitlin were also equally lovely.

"We could try it out." Caitlin agreed. "It seems like it would be beneficial."

"I'm game to try." Cisco stated.

After the idea was first introduced, all of them found that they wanted to be with each other. All of them with all of the remainder.

"Living together though?" he sipped the slurpee.

"Apparently, when alphas and omegas," Eddie's eyes flashed to Barry again, who groaned. "Change, it may be dangerous for them to be alone. And apparently the changes in hormones will cause instincts that will force us all together whether we are living together or not. I'm guessing that it would be best to be prepared." he almost growled at the idea of all of them living apart, but he stopped himself. What was that about?

"If we are going to include the living together part, we should probably get something that isn't an apartment." Caitlin suggested. "A house maybe?"

"So what, do we go home now and meet up to search later?" Barry looked contemplative.

The doctor was being honest. "I don't exactly feel comfortable letting you go by yourself just yet. According to these scans....it may get kind of bad. I don't know how into depth the change will go, and I don't want you to be alone when that happens."

"Is that your instincts coming in?" the speedster grinned.

Her cheeks filled with color. "Probably."

"How about all of you come to my apartment for now?" Eddie offered. "I have multiple bedrooms and food in my fridge."

"Eddie's." Barry nodded furiously. "I'm completely out of food."

Cisco's hand collided with his face. "And you didn't tell me this? Jeez, Barry." he got out some of the special bars and tossed them to Barry.

"Thanks," the speedster almost groaned at the bars. He really didn't like them all that much.

"So, we game?" Cisco clarified.

The rest of them nodded, and they all shared a smile. It just felt so right for them right now, and they were close to begin with. It was going to be an adventure now!

Unknown to them, Eobard Thawne was thinking about just how this new information he had could change his plans. Now, instead of only one person, Barry was with four. One was Eddie, and he couldn't touch him. But that just meant that he had to target others to torture the Flash, now wouldn't he?


	2. A New Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cisco, Caitlin, Barry, Iris, and Eddie try to adjust to their new lives and make things easier. Eobard schemes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own the Flash, and I apologize if anyone is out of character.

That night, the five of them made their way to Eddie's apartment. Caitlin, Cisco, and Barry had to return to their places first to pack essentials, but they made their way over as soon as possible. Eddie grinned as he saw the three of them on the couch getting ready to watch the television. Having them here made him feel confident, responsible, and in charge. No one was going to take them from him, and if they wanted to, they'd have to go through him.

Wait a second...what was he thinking? None of them were technically his, so why did he feel like this? He didn't want anyone else to touch them; in fact, he didn't like the idea of certain people even looking at them.

What did this mean for his new dynamic?

"Caitlin." he started out, and the doctor's attention was drawn to him. "Tomorrow, I think it would be a good idea to do those body scan on all of us."

She nodded in understanding. "Why are you asking this now? Are you experiencing any changes?" Caitlin stood up and moved over.

"Just changes in thought processes. Haven't noticed much about my body yet."

"It could be internal, and you might not have noticed it yet." the doctor notified. "How have your thought processes changed? Are the more dominant or submissive?" she inquired.

Eddie shrugged. "Probably dominant."

Caitlin bit her lip a bit. "Do you want to describe them maybe?" she took out the probably-illegally copied notes.

Barry and Cisco both looked interested.

He almost growled in frustration. "It is kind of hard to describe, but..."

Caitlin made the 'go on' gesture.

"I really like that everyone is at my place, but I don't want anyone else to touch any of you. I fell like I am....responsible for all of you." Eddie leaned against the table.

"Sounds like the alpha type." Cisco mentioned.

"Maybe." Caitlin agreed. "We'll check it out tomorrow."

"Preferably before all the scientists and the government come to Central City's door, wanting to record who has what dynamic and dissect like everyone." Cisco added.

Eddie actually growled at that idea, but he stopped it quickly. Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, and Iris, who had just walking in, all looked surprised.

"Sorry." the detective blinked. "So...pizza?" he offered if only to get away from the topic.

"Dude." Cisco grinned. "Yes. Definitely yes. Though we'll need like four pizzas just for Barry."

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"Super speed means super fast metabolism." Barry explained shortly.

Iris nodded in understanding. "What were you guys planning?" she inquired.

"We're going to do body scans of everyone tomorrow to see if we can figure out which of the dynamics they are going to be." Caitlin replied.

"And now we're getting pizza." Cisco added on helpfully.

The reporter looked to the detective and the forensic scientist. "Don't you to have work at the CCPD tomorrow?" she questioned.

"Oh, right." Barry groaned, having obviously forgotten.

"We can do it afterword." Eddie commented hopefully.

"That depends if Singh ever releases us." the speedster responded.

The detective tutted. "He only makes you stay because he doesn't know what time you will be coming in the next day."

"Seriously?" Barry asked incredulously.

"Yup." Eddie nodded. "Which is why you should be on time." he reminded.

The speedster refrained from rolling his eyes.

"I'm going to drive you tomorrow by the way." the detective continued. "So just know, that I will flip the mattress if it gets you to go faster."

Cisco snorted at the mention of speed.

"I think I'm fast enough." Barry grinned as well.

Eddie sighed. "Yes, well, if I have to get up early, so do you." he made that final. "And I'll put up a speed limit." he added helpfully.

"Aw...why?" the speedster complained a bit.

"Because I haven't invested in paperweights." he deadpanned. "Also, if you speed around everywhere, people are going to figure out where the Flash hangs out."

At STAR Labs, Eobard Thawne was in his secret room again.

"GIDEON," he voiced after a moment of thought. "Pull up any new information on General Wade Eiling."

Eobard had been thinking about certain things that would probably change due to the addition of dynamics, and one of the people he thought of was Eiling. If he was already into exploiting metahumans, who knows what he would do with these new dynamics.

"Yes, Mr. Thawne." GIDEON replied. "I have pulled up records of General Eiling's activities involving the addition of the new dynamics and Bartholomew Allen."

"Thank you, GIDEON" Eobard answered as he read through the material.

He noticed a rather interesting headline on one. It read: **New Metahuman Experiment Concludes that Powers Can be Passed on to Children**

The Reverse Flash read through the article quickly. The headline was a bit misleading as it turns out. According to some future experiments that Eiling does, metahumans that were not affected by the mutagens could not pass on their powers, but those that were could. It took some sort of combination of alpha, beta, or omega to produce an offspring that would be able to retain the abilities of the parent.

While that was interesting, where did Barry Allen fit into this? The article itself does not say, but GIDEON claimed that he was involved somehow. Did Eiling somehow manage to capture the Flash and do some of those incredibly intrusive experiments?

Eobard growled at the thought. The Flash was _his._ Why didn't anyone else understand that? He needed the Flash's speed in order to get back to his time, and here was Eiling, taking Barry Allen right from under his nose.

He quickly went back to the most viewed article GIDEON has stored; it was still accurate for the most part. That meant that whatever Eiling did to the Flash, Barry would be able to recover from it. But the experiment itself alarmed him a bit.

The Reverse Flash knew that if Barry Allen was one of the test subjects for that invasive experiment, he probably ended up having some offspring. And if powers could be passed on genetically, did that mean that there were more speedsters running around in the future than there were before? Eobard scowled; technically, he was still the descendant of Edward Thawne. And since he married all four of his little pack, did that mean that he himself was also descended from the man he hated most in the world? The Flash?

Eobard knew that it was likely. He had speed and the surname Thawne, so shouldn't that mean that he was descended from a person whose parents are Edward Thawne and Bartholomew Allen? The Reverse Flash after all shared no biological relation to Caitlin Snow, Iris West, or Fransisco Ramon.

The speedster decided that he would have to unfortunately push back taking the Flash's speed for a bit longer. If his own speed depended on Barry's ability to pass his genes on to his spawn, who would also be descended from Thawne and therefore the Reverse Flash's ancestor, he could not steal the Flash's speed until he is sure that those genes were in fact passed on. That meant he might have to wait even more; Eobard sighed dramatically. Surely he had already done his waiting?

Though, Eobard thinks as he looks back to the article in contemplation, Eiling will manage to capture the Flash, and if he has to wait even more, who knows how fast Barry Allen will be when the time actually comes?

Maybe it would be helpful to keep an eye on Eiling's activities after all.

"Are you sure you don't want to sign up for an eating competition or something?" Eddie marveled.

"Eh," Barry shrugged. "I think I'd have an unfair advantage."

Cisco snorts. "That's exactly the same thing you said when-"

"I know, I know." the speedster brushed it off while grinning.

"When what happened?" Iris sounded interested.

"Back in the beginning," Cisco started, "There was this guy who contacted the Flash. He was and Olympic trainer, and he wanted the Flash to be a sprinter in the Olympics!" he laughed hysterically.

The reporter couldn't help it; a giggle escaped her lips. "Well, we definitely know who would have won." she smirked a bit.

"People spend their entire lives training to be part of that, and I got the ability to beat all of them by holding onto a metal chain in a lightning storm." Barry shook his head. "It wouldn't have been fair to them. Plus, I have a duty here."

"I think you should have done it." Cisco mentioned.

Suddenly, a sharp, stabbing pain erupted from Barry's abdomen. He frowned at it but didn't say anything; sometimes, things like that just sort of happen naturally, don't they? It would be no use kicking up a fuss about it.

The speedster's cell phone rang, causing all five to look at it like it was a ticking bomb.

Barry turned it on and looked at the caller. He groaned but picked it up. "Hey, Joe..."

The other four of them looked at the phone again in an alarmed manner.

 _"Where are you?"_ they could hear his voice through the cell phone.

"I'm at Eddie's..." Barry trailed off.

 _"Why are you there?"_ Joe sounded confused.

"Um....let me give you over to Eddie for that one." the speedster handed the phone over to the detective.

Eddie mouthed 'Why would you do this to me.'

Barry shrugged, mouthing 'I don't know.'

 _"Care to explain?"_ Joe asked again after Eddie started.

"Barry, Caitlin, Cisco, Iris, and I are all here right now." he answered efficiently.

Joe didn't respond, but all of them could practically hear the suspicion from the other end.

"We all sort of....hit it off?" he offered.

He was silent for a bit longer. _"So now you are with both of my children and some of their friends."_

"Yes." Eddie could practically see the hole he was digging.

 _"Is everyone sure they really want that or do they just think they want that because of the metahuman?"_ Joe's voice showed his disapproval.

"We're trying it out."

_"And what makes you think you deserve any of them?"_

"Honestly, sir, I don't think I do." Eddie responded.

Joe was quiet again for a little bit. _"Can you hand me back to Barry?"_

Barry shook his head furiously, but Eddie answered. "Of course," and handed it to the forensic scientist.

_"Barry. What happened with the metahuman?"_

"She infected me with a mutagen." the speedster responded. "Like everyone else."

 _"Which mutagen?"_   Joe inquired.

"Uh...the third one." Barry answered. "And Joe..."

_"Yes?"_

"Iris and Eddie sort of....found out..." the speedster winced as soon as he said those words.

He was silent for a bit, but when Joe started speaking again, his voice was deadly calm. _"You told Iris and Eddie that you are the Flash?"_

Iris took the phone from Barry right there. "No, Dad. He didn't; we found out on our own. Why didn't you let him tell me?" her voice was full of anger.

_"It was for your safety..."_

"I wasn't safe when I was in the dark! I got kidnapped, remember? It would have been better if Eddie and I at least knew what we were dealing with!" she nearly shouted at him.

Joe was silent.

"You know what?" Iris shut her eyes tightly. "I don't want to be mad at anyone right now. The five of us just got together; we'll all be over for dinner on Sunday at eight by the way!" she grit her teeth a bit.

 _"Okay,"_ he sounded surprised at the sudden change. _"Are you being affected by the mutagens too?"_

"Yes, Dad." Iris rolled her eyes. "Everyone in Central City has been; it is one of the reasons none of us are turning on the news."

All of them knew that it was very likely that the Flash was blamed for his hesitation during the incident.

_"Which one?"_

"I don't know yet." she admitted frankly. "For some of us here, we have suspicions, but none of us but Barry knows of sure. We're doing full-body scans tomorrow, and Barry did one today. He's been forming some new parts."

_"Is it at super speed?"_

Caitlin signaled for the phone to be handed to her, so Iris complied. "We don't really know yet, but based on the fact that his cells can regenerate at an alarming right, I'd assume so. But we can't know for sure since we don't have a different omega to compare him to."

As if it was a reminder, Barry felt a similar stab of pain in his abdomen region again.

_"Anyways, I'll see you all Sunday."_

"Bye, Dad!" Iris spoke into the phone before it cut out.

Eddie checked the time. "Well, I'm going to go to bed." he focused the next part on the forensic scientist. "So I can get up and be nice and early for work tomorrow."

Iris cackled at the expression on the speedster's face.

"How are sleeping arrangements working?" Caitlin clarified.

"I think it would work if we split up three and two for now." the detective shrugged. "However you guys want to I guess."

The doctor voiced her thoughts. "I'm going to stay with Barry since we don't know if his super speed will cause...problems in the development of his new parts." She paused a bit. How fast would cancer affect Barry's body if he were to get it and it wasn't corrected?

"Cool." the speedster stood up.

"I'll go with you guys too." Cisco nodded.

Eddie nodded, fully trusting the others to take care of each other. "We'll see you in the morning. Bright and early." he spoke to Barry again.

"I can get ready really fast!"

"Remember my speed limit?"

"You never set the limit...."

Eddie frowned. "Probably around three miles per hour!"

Barry groaned really, really loud at the idea.

Meanwhile, General Eiling was watching the news. More specifically, he was rewatching the moment when the Flash was affected by the mutagen over and over and over again.

"Dr. Hopkins?" he turned to one of his associates.

"Yes?" she squeaked out.

"I assume you have the information Miss Hunter left behind." Eiling frowned.

"Yes, sir." Hopkins confirmed.

The general nodded. "Good. And do you know which one infected the Flash?"

"Yes, sir." she repeated. "The Flash was infected by the omega mutagen. Simply stated, this mutagen changes the structure of the individual, so they can bare children no matter what their gender is."

Eiling narrowed his eyes. "And the other ones?"

"The beta mutagen only really causes an advanced sense of smell. They are basically the go-between between omegas and alphas. The alpha mutagen basically allows males and females to be able to impregnate people. Sort of like how some animals do it." Hopkins explained.

"Interesting." the general turned to a large group of his associates. "Get me the Flash. His speed would be beneficial for use in the military, and this new development would be even more interesting to test."

He grinned, thinking about all the advancements that could be made if he got his hands on that certain speedster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone has any suggestions for how this story should go or preferences on how a right the dynamics or anything, please feel free to tell me!


	3. Going Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next morning....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own The Flash, and sorry if anyone is ooc.

Barry groaned as the lights turned on the next morning. He looked over and glared at the intruder into his sleep, not at all surprised to see Eddie looking at him with his little smirk on his face. He had barely gotten any sleep the night before as he was kept awake by stabbing pains occurring in the region of his abdomen every now and then. He didn't think it was frequent enough to be a concern, but he knew that his opinion could be entirely based on the fact that time moves so much slower for him. Still, he decided that it wasn't important enough to inform Caitlin about.

The speedster groaned again and promptly put his head back onto a pillow.

"Oh, no you don't." Eddie marched over with a purpose and shook Barry's shoulder.

"I can get ready really fast...." he complained.

The detective nodded. "I know, but we don't want any of the neighbors looking in and seeing all your lightning."

"But Eddie..." Barry made a face into his pillow. "Sleep is very important..."

"Yes, it is." Eddie nodded. "But so is going to work and getting paid."

The forensic scientist only groaned in response.

"I will go get Iris, and she will dump a bucket of ice water on you." the detective reasoned. "I doubt Caitlin or Cisco would appreciate that very much."

"Dude, please no." Cisco cracked open one of his eyes. "I've already done the ice bucket challenge."

Caitlin sat up and unstuck her static-y hair from her pillow before raising it and repeatedly hitting her favorite speedster with it.

"Fine." the speedster dragged himself out of bed and collapsed on the floor.

"I'll go get Iris." Eddie walked out of the room helpfully.

"No, no! I'm awake. Completely awake." Barry remembered her methods of waking people up.

The detective smirked a bit. "Are you sure? I could easily go get her..."

"I'm sure." he slowly made it to a standing position and sifted threw the bag he had brought the night previously.

"Singh will be so impressed with you being on time..." Eddie tainted slightly, putting a toothbrush in his mouth.

Barry actually snorted at that. "As if."

"Singh actually likes you a lot, Barry." he reminded.

The speedster rolled his eyes and ripped off his shirt.

"Well, hello, Barry." Cisco's eyes widened. He had always found the forensic scientist attractive, but damn, he was even more so now.

He saw Caitlin glancing up at him too.

Iris hummed as she combed through her hair. She was a bit disappointed that she didn't get to have a bit of fun with Barry and a bucket of ice, but she supposed that it was probably for the best. The CCPD and the entire pack would not appreciate a grumpy forensic scientist.

Eventually, she saw the speedster and the detective make their way down the hall. Iris smirked a bit. Despite the fact that it took a while to get her hair and make up to look okay, the reporter was still always finished before the boys.

Barry collapsed onto a chair in the room, still looking properly exhausted.

Eddie rolled his eyes. "You done getting ready?"

He shook his head.

"Go get ready. Why do you sleep so much anyway?"

Barry shrugged. "I need the energy and the time it gives for my body to fix itself. Because of my speed, it takes longer."

Eddie actually looked sympathetic. "Ouch. You could always nap at lunch time."

"That's lunch time. You know, food?"

"Right...." the detective moved his hand over his face. "That's unfortunate, man."

Iris smirked as she put the finishing touches on her make up. She was sure that her time for getting ready was a new record.

"You need some ice, Bar?" Iris grinned a bit as she looked through the fridge.

"No, thank you." he picked his face up off where it had fallen on the table.

"Does Caitlin know about the sleeping issue?" Eddie opened the cabinet and brought out some coffee beans.

Barry shook his head. "No. She has enough to worry about, and she is already helping me with other problems."

The detective sighed. He had expected that answer. "Barry, you have to tell Caitlin when something is ailing you."

"It's not like it is a problem or something. I can easily take action to fix it myself." he replied confidently.

"And in turn, this causes you to be late everyday." Eddie lectured.

Iris snorted a bit at that. "He was late all the time before the lightning struck him as well."

"That doesn't mean it is a good habit to keep." he responded.

"Well, what about sleep anyway?" she had been in the bathroom for that part of the discussion.

Eddie answered for the speedster. "He needs extra sleep because of his speed."

Iris groaned. "Barry, you should have told someone!"

"I did! I just told Eddie." Barry answered.

"Before five minutes ago!" she replied. "Caitlin, Cisco, or Dr. Wells could have helped you!"

The speedster frowned. "They already have a lot to deal with on their own-"

"But they wouldn't be mad at you for sharing that with them." Iris ended the conversation. "They will probably be more annoyed that you didn't tell them, and they'll be concerned when I tell them."

"Iris!" Barry launched himself up in protest.

The reporter frowned. "Eat that bar of yours with like a bazillion calories."

The speedster was tempted to run away before the wrath of Caitlin Snow could be set on him, but one looks from Eddie told him that that would not happen in his kitchen.

Barry sat back on the chair he had occupied earlier and continued to pick at his power bar.

"Barry!" Caitlin, messy hair, pajamas, and all, came storming into the room with Cisco close behind. "Why didn't you tell us that you needed more sleep?"

The speedster shrugged. "I could deal with it myself."

"Iris said something about not wanting to burden us with it." She frowned.

Barry frowned again before nodding, admitting defeat against his pack.

Cisco crossed his arms. "I wonder if we could make one of those sleeping pods..." his brain started working.

"Do you think the Captain would give him a sick day? I really want to figure this out as soon as possible." Caitlin bit her lip as she tried to figure out how to solve the problem.

Eddie shook his head. "I don't think so. We are in the middle of a very important investigation."

Caitlin sat in a chair as well. "I guess I'm awake now."

"Same." Cisco accepted the cup of coffee presented to him with thankful gestures.

The five of them sat there for a while. None of them talked as they ate breakfast and allowed themselves to wake up.

Suddenly, Iris's phone rang.

"It's Dad's work phone." She frowned.

Eddie swallowed his toast before saying "He took an early morning shift today."

Iris nodded in understanding and answered the phone. "Hi, Dad."

 _"Hey, baby girl. Can you put me on speaker phone? We don't have a lot of time to chat."_ Joe sounded rushed.

The reporter looked concerned at this but took the phone away from her ear and clicked the button. "You're on speaker."

 _"Okay,"_ his voice sounded hushed.  _"I don't want Eddie or Barry to come into work today. Cisco and Caitlin would probably do well to stay back as well."_

"Why?" Eddie inquired curiously.

_"Eiling and his men came to the CCPD the morning. They are looking for the Flash. Well, officially, they are looking for Barry, but we know what he means."_

Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin all groaned in unison.

"Right when we get a little bit of peace and quiet." Cisco mourned.

 _"Also,"_ Joe sounded urgent.  _"I'm pretty sure they got STAR Labs staked out too. I'm planning on calling Dr. Wells after you guys."_ as much as he found the man suspicious, he still had to keep up appearances.

Caitlin nodded. "All right, we'll stay here for now."

_"Singh told me that he's giving Eddie and Barry paid leave while Eiling stops you guys from coming in."_

"He's okay with us hiding from the military?" Barry sounded surprised.

_"He told me that you were never exactly inconspicuous with your running."_

Now, the speedster groaned. "He knows?"

_"Yup. Listen to me now. All of you be careful. We know exactly how far Eiling is willing to go with this, and I don't want anything happening to anyone."_

"Okay, Dad. Call Dr. Wells, you hear me?" Iris looked worried despite the fact that she had no idea who Eiling was. "Bye,"

_"Bye."_

She hung up, and the five of them were silent for a bit longer.

"Who is Eiling? And why do I get the feeling he knows you are the Flash?" Eddie raised an eyebrow.

Barry shrugged a bit. "He does."

"Eiling is a general who is obsessed with digitizing metahuman powers for military purposes." Caitlin sipped her green tea, not opting for coffee.

The detective growled a bit. "What do you mean?"

"He likes to lock up metahumans and find out how they work." Cisco shuddered at the thought.

Iris felt sick, "Like-"

"Human experimentation? Yeah, like that." he finished for her.

Eddie scowled at the thought, "How many victims?"

"We don't know, but he has been vying for Barry for a little while. We also met this woman who escaped from him. Bette sans Souci. Eiling killed her when he couldn't capture her." Cisco responded.

Iris smirked a bit. "Is this on or off the record?" she could easily spread the word about these experiments through the press.

Barry frowned. "Off." the pain in his abdomen returned again.

She looked shocked at this. "Why? If the public and the police knew this was happening-"

"Eiling has made it clear with Bette that he's not afraid of killing loose ends and people who let the info out. He would know what you are writing about and end you before it is published." he answered.

Iris looked frustrated. "Well, don't leave the apartment for a while. Not even as the Flash."

"We could always ask Oliver for backup for now." Caitlin offered.

"Who's Oliver?" Eddie inquired.

At this question, Barry got out his phone and started texting someone at super speed.

The doctor groaned. "Forget I said that."

"They only know one Oliver." Iris raised an eyebrow. "How does Oliver Queen count as backup?"

"You guys know Oliver Queen?" Eddie asked faintly.

"Forget I said anything." Caitlin repeated.

Barry read through the latest text and got the approval he needed. "Oliver's the Arrow."

He felt another wave of pain in his abdomen as he announced that to the room.

Iris's eyes went wide. "Really?"

Cisco and Caitlin looked at him questioningly as to why he spilled the metaphorical beans.

The speedster held up his phone, showing his texts. "He said I could tell them when they got suspicious as long as they could be trusted to keep his identity a secret."

"I still can't believe you have Oliver Queen's number and never shared it with me." Iris pouted slightly.

"It is on the emergency call log at the lab." Caitlin absentmindedly brought up.

Eddie still looked nervous. "Isn't the Arrow known for using violent methods?"

"Oliver's okay." Barry defended. "He's good back up and a good friend." he began texting again to tell him about the situation at hand."

The detective frowned some more. "Didn't you fight him that one time?"

"You mean that time I attacked you? Yeah, I wasn't in the right mind then. The Rainbow Raider whammied me." the forensic scientist explained as yet another slice of pain pierced its way through his abdomen.

Iris suddenly thought of something. "Does Eiling have any way of easily defeating you?"

Barry nodded. "He has weapons attracted to large amounts of kinetic energy and some other things."

Eddie grimaced. "Wonderful. That means definitely no speed anywhere for now."

The speedster frowned.

"We don't want you to be taken by Eiling and put through experiments." the detective lectured.

Barry crossed his arms. "If we are going to be here for a while, can I go back to sleep now?"

Eddie nodded.

"Please do." Caitlin mourned the loss of her access to the labs.

The forensic scientist let out a small cheer and walked back to the room he, Caitlin, and Cisco were sharing.

Iris sipped her coffee. "I'm guessing we'll have to wait on the body scans then."

Caitlin nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. We don't want to risk running into Eiling. That never ends well."

The reporter nodded. "Eddie?" she turned and gave her best doe eyes.

"Yes?" Eddie could tell she wanted something.

"Can I borrow your car to go to work?" Iris grinned a bit.

The detective frowned. "Joe said to stay home."

"He said for you four to stay. I should be fine at work." the reporter replied.

Eddie swallowed hard. "Fine...but if you think Eiling is going to show up, get out of there fast."

Iris happily twirled the keys around. "Naturally. I'll become the Flash."

"That would be a sight." he laughed.

Iris's heels clacked as she left the apartment.

"So," Cisco drew out the 'o.' "What do you guys want to do? Because there is a Harry Potter marathon coming up in a few hours, and we can't miss that."

Caitlin shrugged. "I'm thinking of going to get some more sleep as well."

"Kay," Cisco drank some more of his coffee.

The doctor made her way back to the room they were sharing and found the omega of their pack already passed out. She frowned slightly in concern after she noticed that he hadn't bothered to change his clothes again. It appeared that all he did was kick off his shoes and collapse on the bed.

Her worry grew when she saw him wince and curl in on his abdomen. Was he hiding something else from them? Did Barry really think they would be that annoyed by his problems that he kept them to himself?

She frowned. That couldn't be the case, could it? Caitlin bit her lip as she contemplated waking him up. He did need the extra sleep, but he was hurting at the same time.

She laid down on the bed. She would let him sleep for now, but he was not getting out of answering her questions when he woke up.

Meanwhile, Eiling paced around the CCPD. Barry Allen should have been here by now.

"Where is your forensic scientist?" he demanded an answer from a random detective.

"I don't know, general. Probably still in bed. Babyface, I mean Allen, is usually late." the detective rushed his reply to get away from the furious general.

The general let him leave before he contacted a portion of his men. "Go to Allen's apartment and see if he is there."

"And if he is, sir?" one of the men inquired.

"Capture him alive."

"And if he is not, sir?" the same man continued.

"Stay there just in case he returns."

The men ran out of the police department, and Eiling grinned a bit to himself. Soon, he would have the Flash and all his DNA's secrets in his grasp.

Eiling pulled aside another detective. "Who else is missing here today?"

"Um..." she thought furiously before responded. "Only Detective Thawne, sir. Sick day, I presume."

The general frowned and let her go. Should he investigate Thawne? He would surely be suspicious if he did. In fact, he was sure the entire CCPD was wondering why he needed a militia to collect Allen. And why he wanted him too.

If only they knew about the potential weapon lying right underneath their noses...

Eiling paused as he remembered the mutagens. The Flash had definitely been infected by the omega one, so it was possible that he was lying low for a few days while it took affect. He briefly wondered what impact it would have on his powers...

He hesitated as a new idea came crashing over him. What if the offspring of metahumans had their magnificent powers as well? He could see it now. An army composed of the children of metahumans all under his command. They would be stationed all across the world and ready to fight for their nation with their extraordinary powers at a moment's notice.

The general smirked a bit. Allen was an omega. Omegas could bare children. The highest amount of metahumans in the world was in Central City.

The next step seemed obvious, didn't it?


	4. Lying Low

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pack tries to avoid Eiling, not knowing that one of their own allies is betraying them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing. Sorry if anyone is out of character. Please don't kill me if my science isn't right. Nothing about abo is really scientifically accurate, so I don't have to be either.

Barry let out a low moan as he curled in on his abdomen some more. Was it supposed to feel like this? He felt like his insides were being destroyed and reformed. Which, in all honesty, was what was probably happening.

That didn't stop it from being undesirable though. The time in between the stabs of pain were speeding up, and his abdomen was seriously cramping now. What was actually going on?

Caitlin bit her lip as she watched the omega sleep. He let out a low moan again and curled into an impossibly tight ball. That was it. The final straw. She didn't care if he was cranky for the rest of the day; this was obviously a problem.

The doctor shook Barry's shoulder again. It had been about two hours since he went back to sleep, so he should be okay by now hopefully. While she woke the slumbering scarlet speedster, her brain worked at thousands of miles per hour to work out what could be wrong with him. Would his body eventually sort itself out or would medical help be required?

And if Eiling was on the streets looking for him, she knew that the latter would be impossible.

Barry leant into her body heat before cracking open his eyes. "Cait? What are you-?"

"I want to check you out." Caitlin tutted slightly. "You've been hiding more problems from us, haven't you?"

The speedster looked away. "I didn't think it was important to tell you. It only started after the mutagen began working." he was seriously bummed by that. Was he the only one getting these side effects?

"There are conditions that take less time to kill someone." she scolded gently. "Now, come on. Let me examine you."

Barry frowned. "What do you want me to do?"

"If you could take off your clothes, that would be great." Caitlin instructed.

He hesitated slightly. Were they really that close already? He guessed so. They were pack now even if they hadn't officially bonded or married yet. Plus she saw everything while he was comatose. Shrugging, he slowly uncurled himself from her and took off his top.

The doctor bit her lip as she concentrated. "I wonder if Eddie has any equipment I could use...."

"Maybe band-aids, but he's not going to have fancy stuff."

"Yeah." Caitlin agreed. "I'll do procedural stuff first. Maybe Iris could pick something up before coming home..."

"Now what?" Barry felt kind of uncomfortable just standing there with no clothes on.

"What? Oh, lie down on your back please." She was brought out of her thoughts.

Once lying down once more, the doctor moved her hands onto his abdomen. "Tell me if this hurts, okay?"

Barry nodded.

She lightly pressed down on around the middle of his abdomen.

"That hurts a little bit." Barry frowned.

Caitlin moved down near his navel and pressed down again.

This time, the speedster let out a low moan. "That one hurts a lot, Cait..." the pain seared through him.

She moved her hands around a little bit more before concluding this section. "I want to check your temperature and heart rate."

"Can I put my clothes back on?"

"Well, you  _could,_ " this was Cisco, who was at the doorway. "What are you guys doing? Eddie and I heard some moaning, and now Barry has no clothes on-"

Barry and Caitlin flushed at what he was insinuating.

"Not that it wouldn't be cool if you guys were going to go at it. Doctoring could be some kind of foreplay-"

"We are not going to have sex right now." Barry groaned.

Caitlin nodded. "I am checking his vitals. It appears that the mutagen is leaving some painful marks."

"Oh." Cisco blinked. "I'll go get a thermometer then and reassure Eddie that he won't need to wash the sheets."

The doctor ignored the last part for now as she located her watch. Would having sex really be such a bad thing? She found herself more and more attracted to all four members of her lack as time went on.

She placed her fingers on his wrist to find his pulse before looking at her watch to time sixty seconds.

The doctor frowned. His heart was beating incredibly fast. While it normally exceeds that of a normal human's, it was going faster than she had ever seen while he was at rest.

"No speed for now." Caitlin instructed. "I know we've told you that several times, but it is way to high right now. We don't want you to go into cardiac arrest due to doing something strenuous."

Barry jutted his lower lip out a bit but nodded nevertheless.

Cisco came back with the thermometer just then. "You know the drill dude."

The speedster rolled his eyes. "Yeah," he took the thermometer from his friend and stuck it in his mouth.

The three of them stared at each other while it was doing its job.

"So, what is Eddie doing?" Caitlin started a conversation while using her fingers to comb through her tangled hair.

"Collecting a lot of movies and games from around the apartment." Cisco responded. "He's thinking about making some actual food tonight instead of ordering out."

The doctor understood that. It would be quite unhealthy to eat that junk every day despite the convenience of having a lot of food with little effort.

Just then, the thermometer beeped, and Caitlin took it from the pack's speedster.

"What does it say?" Cisco was very concerned about all this.

Her eyes went wide as she read the screen. Normally, his internal temperature was slightly higher than everyone else's, but this was getting ridiculous. 

"108.3." Caitlin's voice was barely a whisper out of shock as she had never seen anything this high before. His body could withstand higher temperatures, but this was incredibly high.

"Shit, dude." the other bit his lip hard. "Ice bath?" he stood up quickly to go do that.

The doctor shook her head. "That would slow down his immune system, so more damage would be done than good."

Cisco paused. "I could go get those papers on the mutagens. They might say something."

"Please do." Caitlin nodded in thanks.

Barry groaned as a sudden pain seared through him again. He didn't feel like talking very much, but the speedster did get this sentence out. "Iris is going to kill me."

She agreed. "I bet she will. Not that she won't have help, of course." the doctor leaned over her patient. "What other symptoms can you list?"

Caitlin knew that they couldn't take him to a hospital. If they were to do so, he would be in Eiling's hands immediately.

"It's really hot, and the room is spinning. My stomach is cramping." Barry shrugged.

The doctor bit her lip as she thought about what could be wrong with him. "You do smell different than you did before this whole mutagen fiasco."

"You think I ran through a perfume shop too?"

Caitlin shook her head. "No, that would have worn off by now. I had noticed it once you returned, but it seems stronger for some reason now."

"It might have just developed more." Barry offered.

"Perhaps, but it is something I want to keep an eye on."

"An eye on? What about a nose?" he grinned a little.

The doctor laughed. "You're the worst, Barry."

"Don't you mean the best?"

"No, she means the worst." this was Eddie, who came storming in after Cisco.

Barry waved awkwardly. "Hi, Eddie..."

"You hid another condition from us?" he sounded disappointed.

"I really didn't want to stress any of you out more than need be. You were all also affected by the mutagens, and our situations aren't different."

"They are." the detective argued. "You're the omega. No one else in this pack is one."

Barry shook his head. "You don't know that for sure."

"Yeah, actually I do. You see, I was looking over the papers, and you are the only one displaying omega symptoms." his voice was strong and commanding.

The forensic scientist winced. "That could be due to my speed."

Eddie's eyes softened at the sight of the wince. That could have been what Hunter meant by 'submissive.' It wasn't extremely so, but it was enough for Eddie to see. "Yes, but everyone else is showing symptoms for the others. Caitlin and Cisco have both commented on your scent change. That is a distinctly beta trait, and both Iris and I have some alpha traits developing."

Barry sighed before shrugging.

"Now, let's find a way to deal with the problem at hand." Eddie sat down on the edge of the bed. "I asked Iris to try to buy one of those handheld ultrasound machine things, so we can see if it is due to the extra organs."

Caitlin nodded. "We can't ice him. It would harm him too much to be beneficial. Drugs are too weak to work on him due to his metabolism, and we can't go to a hospital because he is the Flash and Eiling would be waiting."

The detective groaned. "So what can we do?"

"We can force him to rest." the doctor finally decided. "No speed, no anything."

Barry's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

"Seriously." Caitlin replied.

The speedster let his head fall onto the pillow.

"I found the omega section." Cisco announced after a moment of searching.

Caitlin stood up and made her way over to him. They both analyzed the text, trying to discern any relevant information.

"The only thing I could really think it could be would suck." he commented after searching for a minute or so.

Eddie frowned. "And what would that be?"

"His body might be preparing itself to go into heat." Cisco responded.

Barry groaned once more. "What? Like dogs? Seriously?"

He nodded. "I think so. The fact that your body is still adjusting to the addition of all those extra organs is probably not helping very much."

Caitlin snapped her fingers. "I think that is it."

"What? What is?" Eddie raised an eyebrow.

"Combining his speed with the fact that his body is going into heat early, we can assume that it is not ready for heat. The goal of a heat is to reproduce obviously, and his body probably recognizes that it is going too fast. Therefore, perhaps your body is trying to speed up the creation of the additional organs even more by using the cells in organs the body doesn't necessarily need to function." she proposed.

Barry cocked his head to the side. "Cells in specific organs have specific functions. It wouldn't suddenly change."

"Yes, but with your speed, perhaps it simply turned off those codons and turned on the other ones." she debated.

The speedster put his arms up in surrender. "All right, we'll check the ultrasound machine out later."

"You better believe it. For now, you stay here. Don't move an inch. No vibrating."

"Fine, Dr. Snow." he rolled his eyes.

Meanwhile, Eobard Thawne stalked backwards and forwards next to his wheelchair. He had received a call from Detective West concerning General Eiling's presence at the CCPD and STAR Labs. It was very interesting to say the least. A man so convinced that he had murdered Nora Allen (which he did) had warned him about it.

Rookie mistake. He now knew that Eiling was out there now looking for candidates for his experiments.

Thawne paused for a second. Would the general attempt to digitize the Flash's speed while trying to have him produce offspring? Surely he would do it one at a time to not be hazardous, but then again, Eiling was never known for being careful. He wanted results quickly.

Remembering back to the article GIDEON had showed him, he raised an eyebrow. Did they take anonymous tips?

Speeding off to the middle of no where, he brought out a burn phone and started typing in a number that was well known to him.

"Hello." he confidently smirked. Soon, he would have his vengeance on the Flash. He just needed to ensure his survival and the integrity of the timeline. "I'm calling to talk to you about the Flash....."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to tell me if you have any suggestions! The mpreg bit is fast approaching (though this did will have multiple instances of mpreg). If you want anything to happen, you can tell me, and I'll try to work it in!


	5. Eiling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry wakes up in a strange place....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own anything. Sorry if anyone is out of character.

The first thing Barry saw when he woke up was white. The air smelled heavily of disinfectants. He was vaguely aware of talking occurring in a different room. Other notable observations included being strapped to what felt like a bed, those special handcuffs that Barry hated, what he was fairly certain was a butt plug (why?????), and having no clothes on under the sheet.

Odd. And here he was, not even sure of why he passed out.

"Bartholomew Henry Allen. A metahuman speedster known as the Flash and an omega. In a pack with two betas and two alphas despite currently being away from them. Heat will start momentarily." a feminine voice sounded from the group of people entering the room.

The speedster in question immediately shut his eyes and fell limp. Hopefully, they wouldn't notice any change in his incredibly fast heart beat.

"Thank you, Dr. Gonzalez." this was obviously Eiling. "Dr. Hopkins, is it possibly to study both the metahuman omegan physiology and his speed at the same time?"

Barry stopped himself from drowning. That didn't sound good at all. What exactly was going on here? And how did he get here? First, he was confined to the bed by Caitlin, and now, he's here.

What happened to the others? Were Iris, Cisco, Caitlin, and Eddie okay or were they taken as well?

"Theoretically, yes." this must be Dr. Hopkins. "It should be possible as long as we do not do irreparable damage to his reproductive system or cause his body to reject the fetus."

Reject the what? That's it. Barry definitely wanted to know what the hell was going on right now. Where was Eddie? Where was Iris? Caitlin? Cisco?

Joe? Joe was not part of their pack; it would be disturbing if he was. Despite this, Barry knew he was trustworthy. Hell, where was Singh? Singh knew he was the Flash and didn't out him. That made him trustworthy, right?

He sucked in a quick breath and snapped his eyes open as one of the doctors peeled one of his eyelids open.

"Jesus!" she leapt away from the bed in surprise at his actions.

His eyes found Eiling's.

Eiling was smirking. "Hello, Flash, or should I say Barry? You've been very good for us so far. Didn't fight too much on the way out. Unconscious. Running the highest fever any of us had ever seen." the general paused. "And now you are here."

"Where are-" he was cut off.

"Your pack? Oh, they are fine. Should be waking up soon. We flooded the entire place with sedative, you see. Miss West was not at the apartment at the time." he spoke as if he were talking to a two year old.

"What did you do to them?" the forensic scientist demanded.

Eiling sighed. "So close to your heat, strapped to a table, powerless against us all, and you are still very demanding. Very well. I will humor you for now. I didn't do anything to them."

"They will find me." he exclaimed confidently.

The general tutted. "You see, Barry. That's where you are wrong. It implies that they're actually looking."

Meanwhile, the entire pack was looking frantically. They had gone to the CCPD, which was now clear of all men from the military, and marched to Joe's desk.

"Hey, Iris." Joe looked up pleasantly before hardening his face. "I thought I told you all to stay at Eddie's."

"No need." Eddie's face was hard as well. "Eiling's men came and doused us all with some sedative. When we woke up, Barry was gone."

The detective cursed, anger showing clearly on his features. "We have to take this to Singh."

He joined them in their parade and didn't even bother knocking before entering.

Singh had been writing something on a paper when they came in. "West? Thawne?"

Joe nearly slammed the door. "They have Barry."

The pen fell out of the captain's hand. "How?"

"Sedated all of us but Iris. She was working at the time." Cisco didn't even have anything sweet in his mouth.

Singh had no emotion on his face. "We will open a case, but we also have to have definitive proof of it being Eiling." he started tapping rapidly at his computer.

"What do you mean? Eiling literally waltzed in and asked for Barry with a crap ton of soldiers!" Cisco sounded rightfully outraged.

He nodded. "Their lawyers would tear that apart immediately. It probably isn't even enough to get a warrant."

"Don't we count as witnesses as well?" Caitlin inquired desperately.

"None of us actually saw who sedated us. So while we are witnesses, we can't say it was Eiling." Eddie responded.

Joe looked around at the remainder of the pack. "Security cameras?"

"All went offline before the attack." Cisco groaned.

"Street cameras? Witnesses?"

"No on street cameras. No witnesses have come forward." Eddie replied.

Singh rubbed his face. "West, I want you and Thawne to investigate that apartment some more. Ramon, see what you can find with your tech." he was genuinely worried about the kid.

Joe nodded before turning to Iris. "Don't write anything on this."

"But-"

"No! Eiling's got one of my kids; he is not getting another." Joe took Eddie and left.

Cisco blinked a bit. "Well, it looks like I have you girls to help me with tech support."

At the facility, Barry glanced around the room. He himself was strapped to a bed, and if he craned his head, he could clearly see his name, alias, and other information on a screen. Looking around the room, there were many other beds all lined up like some hospital during and epidemic. Some of them were occupied by presumably other metahumans, but the majority of them were empty. Every now and then, a doctor or a scientist would walk by and write something on a clipboard.

So this was a large scale operation. That meant that they would not spend too much time with every subject unless they were being thorough. Which Barry had no doubt that they were, but Eiling liked results fast.

Heat pooled at the bottom of his abdomen, and shock waves went around his entire body. Was this what the famed omegan heat felt like? He didn't like it at all. It felt as though he desperately needed something.....inside him, funnily enough.

He squirmed a little on the bed and tugged at the restraints. 

"Comfortable?" Eiling came marching down towards him with a sleu of doctors trailing behind.

"They are going to find me you know." the forensic scientist repeated again.

The general didn't look amused. "I've already told you that they aren't even searching for you, Barry. Sure, we had to sedate them, but now that you're gone, a huge weight has probably been lifted from their shoulders. You're a burden, Barry. A burden to everyone you know. You're much more useful here. At least you are contributing to our knowledge."

The speedster shook his head defiantly. "That isn't true."

"How do you know?" Eiling now had an amused face on.

"Because I know them."

The general smirked again. "Now, Barry. You hid how many conditions from them because you didn't want to be a burden? Trust me, we both know the truth."

Was that really true? Barry didn't know what to think anymore.

"Now," Eiling gestured to two doctors, each holding a syringe in their gloved hands. "Dr. Jonas and Dr. Lee both have syringes full of semen. One is that from a metahuman, the other is from a normal human. In fact, it is from your own Eddie Thawne."

Barry frowned. "And how did you get that?"

"Isn't it obvious? He donated it to us." the general explained. "Eddie was thrilled to finally be rid of you. He thought of you as competition and too much work to be a good addition to his pack despite being a rare omega. He gave it to us because he wanted this to happen."

The speedster moved around some more. That couldn't be true. It just couldn't. Eddie had shown him such kindness; it wouldn't be like him to help Eiling. No. They must have raided a sperm bank, and Eddie might have donated some a while ago.....

Even Barry knew how farfetched that seemed, and he had always believed in the impossible.

Eiling continued. "Both of them will be injected into your uterus with one injection every hour until your heat is complete. We will have to see which person was more successful at impregnating you. Metahuman alpha or normal alpha? By the way, in case you were wondering, one of the possible parents is in the far bed."

Barry briefly glanced over at the bed. The alpha was a female, but he could not distinguish many traits about her.

"Georgia Lopez." the general supplied. "Female metahuman alpha. She was one of the first we collected after the little mutagen incident. She has the ability to bend light to her will. It's fascinating, really. We've been attempting to recreate her powers for our own use. Imagine how useful that would be for surprise attacks! Oh, and also, all her family is dead. Unless, of course, you can provide her with some."

The speedster swallowed dryly.

"Carry on with the injections." Eiling commanded.

The doctors came on either side of him and thrust the needles into his heat-filled, cramping abdomen before injecting. The fluid rushed inside him, and Barry cringed as he thought about what it was.

"And remember, Flash, you're finally doing something useful."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On my profile, I have many story concepts that I'm thinking of writing soon, so if one of them strikes your fancy, please tell me and I'll get it up faster!


	6. You Won't Come Back Till It's Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This had to be a dream, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own anything, and I apologize if anyone is out of character.

Barry winced as a white room was brought into his view. STAR Labs? The speedster futilely pulled against the power-suppressing cuffs that still held him in place. Why would Caitlin had done that? He couldn't remember; he had been here for what felt like an eternity. His wrists were raw: red from attempting to get free for the duration of his stay.

Where was Leonard Snart when you needed him?

"Well, if it isn't the scarlet speedster."

Barry was in the middle of a Central City street. His red suit clung to him tightly as he dashed down to Captain Cold.

"Put the diamond down, Cold."

"Well, Scarlet, that isn't the point of stealing. Why take it if you are going to give it back as soon as you are asked?"

Snart lifted his cold gun and pointed it at some of the citizens. Barry took off immediately and grabbed some citizens and took them to safety and repeated the process over again.

"Getting cold feet, red? I think you need to chill out."

The next ice ray nearly hit Barry as he felt the cold and pain and discomfort and agony that came along with it.

A little girl wandered slowly into the battle ground. The Flash instantly knew that she was there to watch her hero fight his villian; the small child was adorned with numerous pieces of clothing bearing his insignia.

Barry instantaeneously ran around Snart and towards the young girl and picked her up and carried her out. But he wasn't going to the little girl's house or the connecting streets or STAR Labs or to his apartment.

No, instead he was on a bridge for some reason, and the girl was no longer in his arms but standing precariously on the edge. The forensic scientist sprinted towards her, but it was as though he were running in place. No matter what he did, he could not get to the little girl.

She tottered along the edge for a little while before a huge gush of wind came out of no where and ripped her from the side of the bridge and oh God she was falling and Barry couldn't move to save her.

She moved so slowly, cutting through the air as if she were a knife and it were butter as the water below her glistened in the moonlight like a beacon of doom.

Moving slower than molasses as I'm off to catch the girl who's falling off the bridge.

The problem was that he wasn't off to catch her. He urged himself to move his legs quicker, but the side in which she fell seemed to be getting farther and farther and farther away as she got closer and closer and closer to the water.

Was there anything he could do? He could jump off for her, but he would fall too. But that would be okay, wouldn't it? If there was a chance he could save her then he would.

The girl came closer and closer and closer and closer and closer and....splash. Barry lost sight of her.

Water came up from the surface in slow motion, ripples slowly forming oh God it was so slow.

Time keeps dragging on....

Suddenly, he was on the shore of the river, and he wasn't in his Flash suit anymore. No, instead he was wearing his normal clothes that he wore as a forensic officer.

"Nasty way to go," this was one of the detectives. "Presumable suicide. Seems like this poor girl decided that it would be a good idea to jump off the bridge."

The speedster approached the body that had been recently surfaced. She was young and wearing the exact same clothes Barry had seen that little girl wearing. But it was different. This was a body that was found under water that was partially decayed and rotting and smelt horrible and was being eaten by flies, maggots and other creatures as Barry just stood there and stared and tried to make sense of this situation because enough time had certainly not passed for her to be this unrecognizable. Which Barry should know. He had degrees in the subject, and time keeps dragging on....

He attempted to run to the body, but he was stuck in place again. The forensic scientist let out a hoarse scream as the CCPD officers and detectives all turned and stared in amazement at the electricity coarsing through his very being.

Smoke clouded his vision as he became aware that something was holding him in place, and he wasn't just imagining things.

But he wasn't there anymore. No, instead there was smoke billowing out of the windows of an office building. He could do this. There were people screaming and sirens wailing and onlookers pointing to multiple persons trying to escape through a high window.

He could do this. There was nothing holding him back anymore. He could do this. The little girl was not here anymore, not as a living, breathing, laughing child following her hero or as a rotten, decaying, potent corpse washed up on the beach or as a victim who was falling, falling, falling, falling.

The forensic scientist raced inside the building and started spinning his arms rapidly. The fire billowed and dimmed and went out due to lack of oxygen.

But where fire lacked oxygen, so did the people in the room. There were six adults there, all of them coughing and hacking and trying to get the smoke out of their abused lungs.

And there was one child, unconcsious on the floor, facing away from the Flash. No...he hadn't killed the child, had he? She was on a stair case; more of the smoke would have been there.

It was incredibly possible that he had just murdered someone's child.

Her hair was auburn, but that hardly mattered. She was still, completely still. There was no sign of breathing, and the child did not stir.

The forensic scientist moved towards her, but he found himself rooted in place once more. Why? That had only happened in the presence of the other little girl.

Barry forced himself to observe her more clearly. Her auburn hair was identical to that of the previous little girl's, and her clothing had a Flash insignia on it.

It couldn't be, could it? She was already dead. She had either drowned or died on impact on the water; Barry didn't have time to properly examine her. Did that mean he was hallucinating? Dreaming? Escaping reality?

Where was he? The room he was in had been sterile, white, clean. Was it STAR Labs? But why would they lock him up in those cuffs?

Or was that part of this insanity as well? That couldn't be true. The little girl had not made an appearance in there, so the speedster forced himself to identify the last moment he was positive he knew where he was.

That room had been sterile as well, he thought. He doubted that he had made that up, but he wasn't sure. Instead of being rooted to the floor, he had been restrained to a bed. Eiling had gleefully told him about all these experiments they were going to do on him, and he pointed out one particular alpha.

Alpha...that was right. There was the whole issue with the mutagen as well; the forensic scientist was an omega. Was this craziness simply a byproduct of the infection? He hoped not.

What was it Eiling had been trying to do to him again? He couldn't remember, but he didn't really care about that right now. He had a mission. There was a little girl, dead for the second time in under and hour, right in front of him. He couldn't do anything about it.

There were voices. That meant people; they were screaming at him. The speedster thought he could recognize some of them, but it had been so long since he had had contact with anyone other than the Eiling and his scientists. Did he know them, or was his mind simply playing tricks on him?

"You killed her!" this was a masculine voice, Barry knew.

"She was so young! She had so much to live for!" Female.

"This is why we gave you up! You can't protect anyone, not even her. You come with your problems and give nothing in return!" this was a different male.

Barry's head spun. These people were speaking genuinely; they were speaking the truth.

Johnny get your gun get your gun get your gun.

Hell, he had just burst into the flaming building and took out the fire without any consideration towards who else might be affected by his actions. Was he really so admirable? Did he deserve the praise of the citizens of Central City? Did he deserve the fanatics who bore his insignia on their clothing?

The forensic scientist's eyes found one glittering on the shirt on the body of the young girl. No, no he didn't deserve them. He had done nothing to deserve them or anyone. He gave people his problems, but he never dealt with any of their own. What had he done with the metahumans? He had locked them up in the pipeline, not helping them deal with their new powers, all but abandoning them to die.

What sort of a hero was he?

Take it on the run on the run on the run.

There was music playing and people crying and birds singing and wind whistling and it was so much, it was too much.

He looked around. It seemed to be some sort of carnival, but it was different. There were little children all around him, but there were no parents in sight. Why were they here? Where were their parents? A number of them were crying, letting large droplets of salty water stream down their red faces.

Make your daddy glad to have had such a lad.

Where were their parents? Guardians? Older siblings? Responsible adults? Surely, they hadn't all just congregated here without telling their parents; how did they even get in?

Make your mother proud of you.

"Nora?" this was a little boy, no older than three. He had dark hair, as dark as Barry's friend Cisco had. At least the speedster thought so. It had been so long since he had last seen them.

"Are you looking for someone?" the forensic scientist found that while rooted to the spot, he could crouch down. The sounds of children crying increased tenfold.

He nodded, eyes letting some teardrops go. "Nora!"

"We'll find her. Can you tell me what she looks like?" the speedster inquired.

The boy's eyes watered some more. "Why wouldn't you know what she looks like?" he let out a small giggle despite the current situation. "It's not like you've never seen her..."

Barry frowned. The only Nora he had ever known had been his mother, and he was certain that that was not who this little boy was talking about.

Then, he saw it. They were at a carnival, and there was a high platform where performers would normally stand to do dangerous tricks for the amusement of the crowd. It was so far off the ground...and there was a little girl on top of it. A little girl, no older than eight, with auburn hair and a flash insignia.

It was the same little girl; the speedster took off in his futile pursuit of saving that child's life, but just like what happend at the bridge, the child was suddenly falling so slowly, ever so slowly.

Time keeps dragging on....

He knew he wouldn't be able to save her. Why did she keep dying? He sprinted at her, but she seemed to only get farther away with every step he took. She fell, slower than falling molasses, all the way to the ground with a sickening crunch.

Barry was suddenly released, and he was instantly at her side. Her body was mangled, her hair was a mess, her limbs were sticking out at awkward angles, and he was pretty sure that there was bone slicing through her skin. Her Flash insignia was torn in half.

"Nora?" it was the little boy. The speedster blocked the body from his line of sight.

So this girl who followed him around everywhere and kept dying was named Nora...

Barry was no longer in the burning building. He was no longer on the bridge. He was no longer on the beach. He was no longer at the carnival. He was no longer on the streets. He didn't quite know where he was. It was dark and silent and unbearingly still.

Pack your little kit, show your grit, do your bit.

What was he meant to do here? Every other time had had materialized in a new place he knew exactly what he was getting into. There was a clear goal, a set plan, a path set ahead of him.

Here? Nothing. It was empty, it was cold, it was dark, it was quiet, and Barry couldn't move.

He attempted to vibrate, to throw off sparks, to do anything that might give him an idea as to his location, but nothing happened. Had he lost his powers? He couldn't have; he had been using them during the last few times.

Where was Nora? He had grown accustomed to the little girl. She had been in every part of his dreams but the first one where he was in that sterile room. Or was that not a dream? He seemed to recall that he went from that moment to Snart's the same way he went from the carnival to here.

But he also knew that he was at some facility that definitely wasn't STAR Labs. Had he dreamt about the same location he was in? The scarlet speedster wasn't sure.

A sudden cold flash swept across his abdomen, and Barry involuntarily shuddered. What was that? It was too dark and too silent. What could cause that?

The cold continued for a bit before ending suddenly. Barry could have sworn that he felt someone's hand.

Where was he now? Nora was not here.

Over there over there.

Suddenly, it was not dark. He was in a room. Sterile, clean, white. He was cuffed to a bed that was one among hundreds or even thousands, and Barry could have sworn that the last time he had observed the room, there were more empty beds.

He looked to the right. There were a few people down there, and they were all cuffed. One of the women appeared to be heavily pregnant.

Some of his other senses started coming back to him. He heard a noise that distinctly sounded like a melody. It came from nearly directly above him. Looking up, he found that it was a radio.

 _"_ _Johnnie, get your gun_  
_Get your gun, get your gun_  
_Take it on the run_  
_On the run, on the run_  
_Hear them calling, you and me_  
_Every son of liberty_  
_Hurry right away_  
_No delay, go today_  
_Make your daddy glad_  
_To have had such a lad_  
_Tell your sweetheart not to pine_  
_To be proud her boy's in line_

 _Over there, over there_  
_Send the word, send the word over there_  
_That the Yanks are coming_  
_The Yanks are coming_  
_The drums rum-tumming_  
_Everywhere_  
_So prepare, say a prayer_  
_Send the word, send the word to beware_  
_We'll be over, we're coming over_  
_And we won't come back till it's over_  
_Over there_

 _Johnnie, get your gun_  
_Get your gun, get your gun_  
_Johnnie show the Hun_  
_Who's a son of a gun_  
_Hoist the flag and let her fly_  
_Yankee Doodle do or die_  
_Pack your little kit_  
_Show your grit, do your bit_  
_Yankee to the ranks_  
_From the towns and the tanks_  
_Make your mother proud of you_  
_And the old Red, White and Blue_

 _Over there, over there_  
_Send the word, send the word over there_  
_That the Yanks are coming_  
_The Yanks are coming_  
_The drums rum-tumming_  
_Everywhere_  
_So prepare, say a prayer_  
_Send the word, send the word to beware_  
_We'll be over, we're coming over_  
_And we won't come back till it's over_  
_Over there"_

Barry recognized that song. He and Iris had been subjected to listening to it hundreds of times during high school. It was written in the early twentieth century to try to persuade people to enlist in the army for the first world war. Why would it be playing here?

He felt a fluttering feeling coming from his stomach, but he figured that that was just nerves. Was Eiling really going to play this song for every single person he had captured here? What was his goal?

Was he trying to convince them to help him with his military effort? If so, why would he play that song?

Barry tried to wrap his head around it, but he was distracted by another flutter from his stomach. Whatever. He focused on the radio and recalled hearing that very song several times throughout his dreams. Or was he still dreaming? He doubted it.

And who was Nora? Did he know her, or was she created by his mind? He wasn't so sure anymore.

Another flutter pulled him out of his thoughts once more, and he looked down in annoyance.

Oh God. The speedster looked back up quickly. Eiling had won. He had won, won, won. How long had he been unconscious? Surely, if his pack were truly looking for him, he would have been found by now. There was no way they would have let that much time passed.

Barry Allen let out a hoarse scream, but the other metahumans didn't look up. They seemed accustomed to this.

Another flutter came from his stomach, and the forensic scientist shifted awkwardly. He looked at some of the screens around him, analyzing them, desperate to find some sort of conclusion from them.

The radio changed songs while he was searching.

 _"I've got time to think about the beauty of a thousand variations_  
_Of the beating of a wing_  
_Of a hummingbird suspended in the aspic of the world_  
_Moving slower than molasses_  
_As I'm off to catch the girl_  
_Who's falling off the bridge_  
  
_And I'm there before she knows it_  
_I'll be gone before she sees me_  
_Got my hand around her waist_  
_(as) I pull her back to safety_  
_By the time she knows what's happened_  
_There'll be someone else who needs me_  
_Cause time keeps dragging on_  
  
_And on, and on, and on_  
_Time keeps dragging on_  
_(Time keeps dragging on)_  
  
_I've got time to think about my past_  
_As I dodge between the bullets_  
_How my life was so exciting_  
_Before I got this way_  
_How long ago it was_  
_Now I never can explain by the clock that's on the tower_  
_Or the one that's in my brain_  
  
_And I'm there before you know it_  
_I'll be gone before you see me_  
_And I'd like to get to know you_  
_But you're talking much too slowly_  
_And I know you wanna thank me_  
_But I never stick around_  
_Cause time keeps dragging on_  
_And on, and on_  
  
_And you say the time goes rushing by_  
_(but) It seems so slow to me_  
_And you see a blur around you fly_  
_But it takes too long_  
_It seems so slow to me_  
  
  
_(How) I wish I'd never gone into my lab_  
_To experiment that night_  
_Before lightning flashed around me_  
_And time changed speed_  
_Now I've got to try to be so patient_  
_Till calamity will strike_  
_Because when things change in an instant_  
_It's almost fast enough for me_  
  
_And I'll be there before you know it_  
_I'll be gone before you see me_  
_Do you think you can imagine_  
_Anything so lonely_  
_And I know you really like me_  
_But I never stick around_  
_Cause time keeps dragging on_  
_And on, and on, and on, and on_  
  
_And you say the time goes rushing by_  
_(but) It seems so slow to me_  
_And you see a blur around you fly_  
_But it takes too long_  
_It seems so slow_  
  
_And you say the time goes rushing by_  
_(but) It seems so slow to me_  
_You complain I'm gone before you blink your eye_  
_But it takes too long_  
_It seems so slow to me_  
  
_And you say the time goes rushing by_  
_(but) It seems so slow to me_  
_And I want to be there when you laugh or cry_  
_But it takes too long_  
_And seems so slow to me_  
  
_Time keeps dragging on..."_

Barry read through the information on the screen quickly, thoroughly annoyed at his lack of speed. He twisted his arms slightly, and the cuffs dug into his wrists like knives.

He leant back when he found the information he sought, thoroughly satisfied.

What the hell was Eiling planning to do? Oh God, what was he planning to do? There were noises coming from the radio and the smell of chemicals wafting around the room and the restraints were digging into his wrists and they hurt and the fluttering in his belly continued and why couldn't he remember the last few months?

The forensic scientists let his head drop to the bed in defeat. Eiling had won. No one was coming for him; they hadn't even looked. And now, Eiling had done what he wanted to him. He had gotten his goal. He had beaten the Flash.

His breathing became heavier and more deep as he stared at the proof of his defeat. The sheets that were covering him tented over his bulging belly.

How long had he been unconscious?

The speedster thought back to what the screen had told him. Maybe Nora had never left him after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is confused by this chapter, please tell me. I wrote it to be disorienting, but I don't want anyone to be lost.
> 
> Bonus points to whoever can guess which author's style I'm trying to master! :)


	7. The Forgotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry has a rough time at Eiling's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if anyone is out of character. I don't own The Flash.
> 
> GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE AND HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION  
> THIS CHAPTER IS VERY MATURE AND MAY BE TRIGGERING, SO PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN CAUTION. IF YOU FEEL YOURSELF BEGINNING TO PANIC, PLEASE STOP READING, MY LOVELIES.

Eight months. That's how long he had been unconscious. Eight whole months. That meant that the thing inside of him, Nora, would be alive in a month. Just one month.

Surely, they all should have been found by now? Based off of his observations, the omegas were in a very big and very clean and very stifling warehouse. They were crowded yet separated, near yet far, close yet distanced. Barry didn't like it. He didn't like it one bit.

Where was his pack? Where were Eddie, Cisco, Iris, and Caitlin? Where were the CCPD? Where was Joe? Where was Oliver? Surely, his pack had to have contacted the Starling City hero, but the Flash was well aware that the man was very busy. But still, shouldn't Barry be worth his time? And if not only him, the many other innocents locked in this cold and unforgiving prison?

Eight months was a long time. Eight months was a very long time. Barry had seen the CCPD solve similar cases in less than eight months. While he knew that some of the other forensic scientists were not as qualified as he was, they would be able to find them after eight months. That is, of course, unless they were not looking.

Eiling had told him that before. That his pack was not looking, that they were relieved to be rid of him. Was that true? He originally thought Eiling was lying to him to torture him, but what would be the point in lying? There would be no reward, no promotion, nothing.

His pack must have simply left him. Forgotten about him. Cast him aside like a young girl's rag doll. Speaking of young girl, he glanced down at the sizable swell on his abdomen. Was Nora the child of the alpha metahuman, Georgia Lopez, or Eddie? Was Nora going to be a metahuman or normal? Was Nora ever going to even see the light of day or would she be immediately taken by Eiling? The speedster was unsure of what would happen to the unborn child, and he felt uncomfortable thinking about such things.

Nevertheless, his pack had forgotten him. They never cared. They didn't have the compassion to search for him after all these months. Barry knew his pack. They were all geniuses, and they knew other geniuses as well. That combined with the fact that they had access to some of the highest technology of their time built a very strong case against them. That meant it had to be true, right?

They had left him and forgotten about him and moved on with their lives. Maybe Dr. Wells, Cisco, and Caitlin found another metahuman to poke and prod at and use and dump on the streets. Maybe Iris had gotten a promotion. Maybe Joe and Eddie were talking about a completely different case over coffee.

Where was Oliver? The forensic scientist knew that the archer cared at least in the slightest about him; otherwise, he didn't know if he would still be alive today. Was Oliver searching for him or had he moved on to a bigger, closer threat? Had he even tried? Had he and Felicity gone to Central City and met up with them to try to find him? Probably not as the speedster knew the others never even searched for him.

What was happening in Central City? Had there been any murders or assaults? Had crime skyrocketed in the absence of the Flash? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe STAR Labs was now the headquarters of a different metahuman hero despite Barry's doubts. The scarlet speedster had not come across many good metahumans in his time as the Flash. Almost all of them had decided to use their powers for their own evil and twisted and wrong ways.

Had the amount of crime gone up since his disappearance? It must have after all the criminals realized that the Flash wouldn't be coming back anytime soon, so wouldn't that mean that the CCPD would have even more work? Maybe that was why they hadn't found him yet. They were so overworked, so overwhelmed that they simply didn't have the time or the resources to look for them.

That stung. Surely, Singh would prioritize all these missing persons cases over petty crimes since they were connected. Or maybe they didn't know they were connected? Maybe they didn't pick up on that. They most definitely would have noticed a sharp increase in missing persons cases, but that would be contemporary to the disappearance of the Flash. Meaning, it might be ignored.

But Singh knew he was the Flash. Singh knew he was the Flash and let him keep his job. He forgave Barry for being late for everything. Though perhaps he was incapable of convincing anyone to let him send out the resources without revealing his identity.

To hell with his identity, he was more concerned about the safety of all the metahumans in the room, himself, and all their children. Had some already been born? It's possible, so what would Eiling have done with them? Were they immediately put through experiments or were they given to trusted scientists to raise into perfect soldiers?

The speedster sensed that given a few years the amount of metahuman-related incidents would begin to increase again.

Still, no one had found them. No one had found Barry. Not the CCPD, not STAR Labs, not Team Arrow. By now, they would have been able to find him had they been trying. With Cisco and Felicity, they would be able to find nearly anyone, yet they were unable to find him. That must mean they hadn't tried. They didn't think him worthy enough of wasting their precious resources. They forgot him. He was forgotten.

They were all forgotten. They were all overlooked. They were all disregarded. They were all left behind.

The loud, metallic door opened and slammed shut, and out came Eiling surrounded by all his men. The forensic scientist quickly snapped his eyes shut as their best doctors were still unable of telling when he was truly awake or truly asleep.

"You said it would be okay to run some tests while he is pregnant?" a young male voice sounded, one Barry did not recognize. He sensed all of them walking towards his bed and standing there and staring at him.

"As long as the fetal membrane remains intact, I don't see why not." another voice, one Barry now knew as Dr. Hopkins, answered him.

"Thank you, doctor." Barry felt the vibrations of the young man's footsteps as he approached the speedster.

What exactly were they planning to do to him? They were obviously going to run some tests, but Barry hadn't been around for any of those yet. At least conscience for them. Hell, he could have probably been missing an entire limb and not noticed.

"Restrain it." Eiling's voice sounded after a little while. "We don't want it lashing out at anyone."

"Yes, sir." Barry recognized this voice as Dr. Lee.

The speedster forced himself to remain still as he felt them all approach him and hold him down and strap his limp appendages to the table and brace his head against it and oh God what were they going to do to him. It couldn't be too bad, right? They wouldn't want to harm or hurt or kill Nora. He heaved in a deep breath and squirmed a bit, but the others still seemed to think him to be asleep.

"Should we give him some anesthesia?" the young male, Barry could only assume he was a nurse, inquired honestly.

"No," Barry could imagine that Dr. Hopkin's words were accompanied by a shake of the head, and his heart leapt into his throat upon receiving the information.

There was another moment of silence. It lasted an eternity. Barry tried to listen but heard nothing, tried to feel but felt nothing, tried to think but thought nothing.

He felt something cold against his upper left thigh. What the hell were they doing down there? Barry couldn't really tell, but he was able to recognize the swift yet painful sting of a needle.

What was that if anesthesia was not permitted? As doctors they should know that drugs could harm unborn babies, and they were the ones that put her into him, the ones that made him house her for so many months, the ones that forced her to grow be born in an unsafe environment.

He felt something else cold. It was metallic, and Barry was only aware of a few instruments that would fit that description...

The first scream ripped its way through his system when he felt the object slice its way into his skin as if he were only butter. His eyes snapped open in shock, faintly registering the surprised looks on their faces. The blade pinched and cut and sliced and severed so much. There was so much blood and so much gone...

A huge wave of nausea suddenly crashed on the speedster, and he blinked his eyes wearily. The blade was not touching him anymore; there would be nothing else that would hurt him here anymore....

Suddenly, the pain intensified yet again as he felt the doctors lift something off of him. What was it? He couldn't see. He couldn't hear. He couldn't think. Slowly but surely, his blurred vision came back into focus, and he vomited, the putrid smell searing itself across his senses.

There, in Dr. Lee's hands, was a long and thick slice of human skin. His skin. The skin that came from his body. It was meaty, cut clean with a practiced surgical hand, dripping in scarlet blood.

Scarlet blood from the scarlet speedster.

The hold in his leg, oh the large gaping hole, was left open to the elements as a draft pushed past, making Barry scream again.

"Should we let him recover?" Dr. Nguyen asked almost nervously.

Dr. Hopkins shook her head. "No, we need to get this done now. Who knows if we'll be able to do it after the spawn is born?"

Oh God they were going to continue and keep going and where the hell was Oliver fucking Queen now? Where the hell was the CCPD? Where was Joe or his father? He didn't see STAR Labs rescuing him or anyone else anytime soon. He didn't see anyone. He didn't see anything but the sterile white of the warehouse and the doctors and the general. He didn't hear anything at all. Not there voices, not the machines beeping, nothing. Nothing but the sound of his raw screams.

He tried to phase through the restraints, but the speed-dampening handcuffs remained on his wrist. He tried to break the bonds, but he was too weak. He tried to calm down, but it was too much.

"Should we put him under?" Dr. Lee deposited the slice of skin, his skin, onto a tray to be tested.

General Eiling shook his head. "No, I want to see what it does."

Hatred coursed through the speedster's veins as he sent a deathly glare to his captor. At least, he hoped it looked deathly. It was kind of hard to when strapped down, pregnant, and crying.

Dr. Hopkins approached the right side of him with some sort of weird looking contraption that Barry had never seen before. Instinctively, he turned his head to the left. He didn't want to see how they were going to mangle his body next.

He felt metal go around his fingers, but before he could try to pull them away...

Crunch.

The forensic scientist felt his voice going hoarse as he forced his head back with a loud cry. Every now and then, one of the other metahumans would spare him a glance, but it was exceedingly rare. It seemed as though this sort of stuff happened all the time when he was unconscious. Why had he been unconscious?

The speedster quickly glanced down at his mangled hand, all the fingers pointing at awkward angles in the wrong directions. He forced himself to not stare at it in morbid fascination.

They seemed to be giving him a break now. No one was moving, no one was jabbing anything into him, no one was cutting anything off of him. He opened his eyes a bit to find them writing something down on a clipboard.

Typical.

Where was Joe? He wanted to go home. He wanted to stop running; he didn't want to run away. Not even to visit his father behind his back. He wanted to be in the company of Joe and Iris and Cisco and Caitlin and Eddie and everyone who definitely DID NOT FORGET HIM.

Wasn't stress bad for babies? Barry supposed not if the doctors were doing all these things to him. They, after all, were very invested in the results.

The speedster was suddenly ultra-focused on the conversation around him.

"...should we cut one off?" Dr. O'Connell asked genuinely.

"No!" Barry's voice was hoarse. He had been screaming for every, and the realization came crashing onto him that this was the first time he had spoken in months. "No, no! Please don't. Please!" The speedster wanted to hide his face in shame. He was crying, and the first words out of his mouth in what seemed like forever was for begging. What would Oliver say?

"See?" Eiling sounded pleased with himself. "I told you it would react in interesting fashions."

Dr. Hopkins was still at his right side, and he spared her a small glance before frantically trying to get away from her. It had been so long, too long since any comforting, any loving, any caring contact. No one had touched him in months for reasons other than science and Eiling's experiments. No one had reassured him, spoke kind words to him, or just talked to him in so incredibly long.

He must be getting out of touch with them all. It wouldn't be permanent though, right? His pack would come and save him, and everything would be okay. He would be healed given time to do so. That's how it worked, wasn't it?

But his pack wasn't coming for him....

Dr. Hopkins got closer and closer, and his entire side began to get warmer and warmer and hotter and hotter until it started _burning_ it was so hot. He briefly registered the doctor passing it off to the nurse boy, and the sensation continued to burn and scorch and singe and char and sear and scald his entire right side though most obviously his face.

Why the fuck were they doing this? What was the point? Was it just to brand him, mark him as theirs, scar him for life?

Suddenly, he felt something contract. His left eye flew wide despite his right eye remaining still. Shit. Was that?

"You idiot!" this was Dr. Hopkins, who forced the young nurse to back away with whatever the hell he was using.

"What? What happened?" he looked genuinely confused.

Barry let out a pained groan. It was too early. Far too early. Too early for his liking. Nora would be too young to be put through this. Would she be stuck to a table for her whole life as well?

"You just made him go into labor, you idiot!" the doctor screamed at him.

The speedster felt the world slowly begin to fade away into blackness. Had all the injuries finally caught up to him? Or had his brain given up on continuing?

He knew no more and went out like a light.

"You have to help her!" it was the little boy again, the same one that Barry remembered from the time with the carnival. What was he doing here? Would he also become a constant? His hair was as dark as Cisco's, and his shirt had a quote from the Big Bang Theory on it. And according to the logic by which he figured out who Nora was, that meant that this child, this very child, belonged to him and Cisco? Did that mean that he would get out of here, back to his pack? Or did it mean that Eiling would search Cisco out to get it for an experiment?

How come that boy wasn't in any of the other dreams either? Did they only appear when their creation was cemented into the timeline?

Barry shook himself into clarity. "Help who?" they were in the middle of a children's playground with what must be about a hundred children.

"You know who!" the boy, Barry didn't know his name, pointed to the top of a tower.

 _Voldemort?_ Barry shook that thought out of his head quickly. He knew who...was it Nora? The girl who consistently appeared in his dreams?

The one who was being born right now.....how did it even work if he was unconscious? He needed to be awake, but how could he wake up? He woke up last time by simply playing along with his dreams, but that had lasted eight whole months. Barry glanced down and saw the distinct absence of a belly. Did that mean that it had been a while, a couple of months maybe, already or was it just part of the dream?

"Help her!" the little boy cried out again. "Help my sister!"

Barry's eyes focused on the top of one of the towers in the playground. There was a little girl there with brilliant auburn hair and a Flash insignia on her autumn jacket and green grass stains on her worn jeans, and she was simply twirling herself around very close to the edge. None of the other children, teachers, administrators seemed to care. Maybe they hadn't noticed? She wasn't in their line of sight after all.

But no, they seemed more focused on the children on the ground.

"Okay," Barry tried to speed off to save the little girl again, but he was stuck in place again.

Why did this always happen? He tried to go faster, but all that did was char some of the wood chips on the ground. The little girl, Nora, spun closer to the edge of the tower before she fell, fell, fell straight to the ground head first with a sickening crunch.

Nora had died again. Why? Why did his daughter continually die in every single dream he had? Did it have some significance to the future, like how her very presence signaled to Barry what was happening in the physical world? No, it couldn't be. She wasn't dying last time he was unconscious, but his dreams had told him about her. Was this telling Barry that his daughter was not going to make it? That Eiling and his doctors would tear her to pieces? That she would be killed in some sick experiment? That she might not even ever be born alive?

A spark flew off the scarlet speedster and landed onto the wood chips, instantly igniting them. Almost immediately, the entire playground full of children and adults alike went up in flames.

Barry wasn't at the playground anymore, but the building he was in now certainly seemed familiar. It was the building that was on fire from his last dream. The one where he had murdered Nora by trying to put out the flames.

Speaking of, had he murdered an entire playground full of people while trying to save his daughter's life? His daughter that might not even be born yet? Or ever?

He had, hadn't he? He was a serial killer now, at least in his dream realm. He had killed many even if it was unintentional, even if he was trying to save his daughter, even if it wasn't premeditated.

How could he ever look Singh or Joe or Eddie or anyone else at the CCPD in the eye ever again? They may never know it, but Barry would carry the knowledge that he was no better and probably worse than the criminals and convicts and felons that they locked away every day.

How could he continue to be the Flash?

The little girl's body, Nora's body, still remained on the staircase where it had been left in this dream. She was facing away from him, her hair surrounding her head like a copper halo.

Wasn't it weird to think that the only thing Barry had seen of his daughter as of yet was her death in many different ways?

"You killed her!" it was that female voice again. It sounded so incredibly familiar, just like all the other voiced that had accompanied this dream.

"How could you do that? You knew what would happen!" This voice was male.

Instead of being firmly planted to the ground like last time, the forensic scientist was able to turn and move around. He turned in the direction of the voices. He was right: he could recognize them. They were familiar. They were family. They were pack.

"How could you kill her?" this was Caitlin; she had tears in her eyes.

Oh wow, Barry hadn't thought about any of them for a while beside brief thoughts of them moving on and forgetting him and not looking for him and abandoning him in this sterile, white, clean hell.

"She was our daughter." Eddie wasn't looking at Barry; he was looking at Nora.

"I'm sorry; I really am." Barry felt his heart catch in his throat.

But suddenly, he wasn't even there anymore.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Barry blearily blinked his eyes open. He was moving; the doctors were pushing his bed somewhere. The speedster tried to move, but he was still strapped down. Curiously, he glanced down; his belly still had a large and noticeable bulge to it. Great. So he was going to be conscious for this after all.

But he had killed Nora! Nora had died so many times in his dreams; what if this one was reality? What if she died? Barry wasn't sure he would be able to take it if she did.

The forensic scientist looked to the other metahumans on either side of them. Some of them looked up at him; others did not. Some had nasal cannulas or feeding tubes or IVs pouring drugs into their bloodstream. Some were missing eyes, noses, ears, arms, legs. There was one metahuman who was completely conscious with her entire torso cut open in the classic autopsy-styled y-cut, her breasts dangling to the sides and holding on by only small slices of flesh. He passed another whose large and small intestines sewn in each others' places. Every now and then, the scientists would open the useless flap of skin and record how the large intestine was slowly being disintegrated, destroyed, incinerated by the acidic juices from the stomach without the basic protection from the duodenum.

Oh God, was that what was in store for his baby? Was that what was in store for him?

He realized how he must look in comparison. Sure, all of them were messed up; he himself had severe burns down the entire right side of his body and a broken hand and a huge chunk of skin missing from his thigh. But they were all stationary. Upon observation, he noticed that he was one of the only ones who were noticeably pregnant. Well, not for much longer, but the fact still remained. He had assumed that Eiling would invest more in it.

Exactly how long had he been unconscious? His entire body shivered, and he moaned when a particularly fierce contraction hit him.

It wasn't that long until another one hit him as well. How long had it been? Obviously not months, but it was possibly that Barry had been out for several hours.

"Should we get rid of the data?" the young nurse asked nervously.

Barry growled at him. What did he mean by 'get rid of the data?' Did he intend to kill his daughter? He hoped not because if he was, Barry might just have to show him why he shouldn't mess with her.

"No," Dr. Hopkins sharply denied, much to the speedster's relief. "We do not ever get rid of data. This will simply have to be discussed in the errors section of the report."

They continued on for a little while, passing even more grotesque scenes. One of them had no face, only a swath of scar tissue. Another had a hole in the middle of her hand. All the flesh was burnt out, but the small bones remained stark white, allowing someone to see through her hand.

"Prepare for the incision." Dr. Lee announced.

Oh, fuck that-

Barry screamed. Dr. Nguyen cut through the skin on his belly with no concern for the pain her subject was feeling. She cut through everything, the healthy skin and the burnt, charred, practically non-existent skin on his right side. Then, she started moving stuff around. Was this how that intestine guy came to be? Maybe they had decided that it would be a cool experiment to try after doing this to him. Barry couldn't be sure.

He wasn't sure how many times he would ask himself this, but where the hell were Oliver, the CCPD, and his pack? Surely, they should have found him by now? If they hadn't, they must have stopped looked and declared him dead. That's the only possible explanation. By this time, it would normally be practically impossible for a missing person to be found.

The operation took what felt like forever. Barry couldn't think: he couldn't see, hear, feel, smell anything. Then, suddenly, they stopped. There was silence.

That didn't seem right....

The forensic scientist cracked his eyes open. In the doctor's arms lay a baby with the starting of brilliant russet-colored auburn hair. There was something wrapped around her though, and it wasn't a blanket. It seemed almost like...a cord? The umbilical cord? Why was that wrapped around her, and why was her skin gray?

Dr. Lee quickly cut the cord off of the baby, his baby, and Barry looked away. Was he about to cry? He thought so. His daughter was dead; she had to be. Was this part of the dream? Would he truly wake up in a little bit, eight months having passed yet again and his daughter alive? Maybe his daughter never existed at all, and this entire thing was part of the crazy dream.

Suddenly, a cry broke through the silence of the room. The speedster's eyes snapped open as the doctors put his baby girl down and left the room. Dr. Nguyen stayed for a short while, but he didn't pay her any attention.

She was alive! Nora was actually alive. He felt tears come to his eyes as he struggled against the restraints that had held him down for the last eight to nine months.

The metal creaked slowly as Barry exerted a force he didn't know he still had. After so many months of no movement, wouldn't his muscles have degenerated? Unless, of course, his cells were regenerating at a faster rate again....

The scarlet speedster looked up to his wrist with the speed-dampening handcuffs. They were gone, replaced with normal handcuffs. And with that came a note and a cellphone. Barry slowly started to vibrate and phase out of the restraints, sitting up for the first time in months. He blinked a bit and switched positions before groaning loudly as the blood and pus from his burn would stuck and started to heal to the sheets he lay upon.

At least all of that should be healing soon, right? It wouldn't inconvenience him much longer. The scarlet speedster looked at the note left behind.

_Dear Mr. Allen A.K.A. the Flash,_

_If you are reading this, you have successfully gotten out of your restraints. This letter is an incredibly risky move, but I believe it will pay off. Help is coming. There are no doctors scheduled to come by you again for the rest of the day, and by then, this place will have gone down. The KCPD, CCPD, and SCPD are waiting for the signal to storm this place. The Arrow is also helping our operation. If you would like, you are welcome to join in taking Eiling down, but if you are too injured or too uncomfortable to do so, we would all understand._

_-Detective Ai Hoang_

_Keystone City Police Department_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been considering giving Barry the Savitar scars, but I left it explicitly out in case the idea was unpopular. What do you guys think? If I were to do it, I would have it continue down the side of his body as well.
> 
> ALSO, IF ANYONE KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY, PLEASE HELP ME IN THE COMMENTS!!! I DON'T WANT TO MESS UP THE NEXT CHAPTERS BY INCORRECTLY PORTRAYING BARRY AND HIS RECOVERY.


	8. Return to the Pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry is returned to his pack, but will he ever be the same? And how will they all cope with the presence of a new pack member?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own the Flash. Sorry if I write anyone out of character.
> 
>  
> 
> BASED ON THE LACK OF COMMENTS CONCERNING THE SAVITAR SCARS, I'M ASSUMING YOU GUYS ARE GAME, BUT PLEASE TELL ME IF OTHERWISE.

Barry trembled a bit, staring at the letter resting in his hands that was slowly being stained red with blood coming from his fingers and burns and thigh and C-section incision. Damn it, if Dr. Nguyen was on his side, why didn't she bother sewing him up?

But his pack was coming. They were actually coming. They were going to be there, and he was going to be reunited soon. They had not forgotten him or abandoned him or replaced him or left him to die here. No, they had searched long and hard and eventually found where he and the rest of the metahumans were being held. And then, they came for them.

The speedster awkwardly slid his way over to the bin where Nora lay asleep. There was no way he would be in any condition to join the fight. Barry himself doubted whether or not he would be able to stand up without all his intestines falling out. He forced himself not to vomit as another slice of pain ripped its way through his body. There would be no fighting and no running away. He just had to wait. Wait and hope that Eddie or Joe or Singh found him before Eiling could realize what was going on and take Nora away or kill her.

Barry looked back towards his baby girl. Based on his dreams, the other parent should be Eddie. Eddie had said that she was their daughter when he had accidentally killed her while extinguishing the flames in the building. She was not the daughter of Georgia Lopez but of Edward Thawne, and to be honest, Barry could see the resemblance in her nose and jaw. The two looked very similar, at least Barry thought they did. It had been so long since he had seen Eddie.

He could not fight, and he could not run. But he would not leave Nora. He just had to hope that someone would find him while they were clearing the facility.

The speedster attempted to get his feet under him, but the skin surrounding the grotesque hole in his thigh pulled. He screamed and collapsed back on the ground only to have some of the charred skin on his leg crack and split open, leading to a growing scarlet pool of liquid. Blood.

Why was it that now that the police were actually here, he was so damaged? If they had come a month ago, he would have been fine for the most part. If they had come a week ago, he would have been okay for the most part. If they had come a day ago, he would have been okay for the most part.

Besides, you know, being pregnant.

That was it. He just had to wait and hope and not bleed out until help came. He could not lose consciousness in case someone came for Nora, and she needed to be defended. He could not lose consciousness. He could not lose consciousness. The pool of blood was growing, and there were spots in Barry's vision. He could not lose consciousness.

Barry lost consciousness.

Meanwhile, Joe and Eddie were running through the building, guns drawn. Oliver had gone out in search of Eiling himself, and the rest of the CCPD, SCPD, and KCPD were in the main room of the warehouse with most of the survivors.

Their injuries, both mental and physical, were horrific to say the least. Joe could not remember ever coming across a similar scene in his entire career. Maybe one or two victims in the past were similar, but it had never been on this scale.

In that room, however, they could not find one Barry Allen, but one of the victims helpfully informed them that there was a whole different section of rooms where the metahumans were sometimes taken to for individual experiments. That information itself both filled them with hope and drained it immediately. That meant that Barry could still be there, but he would have been experimented on, the sole focus of the scientists' attention.

On their way to the different section, they had past a quadruple amputee, a woman with no jaw, a man who had every single one of his teeth removed, someone missing both their eyes, people with holes throughout their bodies, people with metal rods sticking in them in different places.

What sort of a state would Barry be in when they found him?

As they were checking the rooms, most of which were empty, they heard a loud cry. A baby? What was a baby doing in this facility? Eiling couldn't have been that cruel though Eddie wouldn't be all that surprised.

Joe signaled for Eddie to stay behind him as they approached the door with caution. The elder detective kicked the door down, and the both of them ran in with their guns pointed up.

There was a baby there in a bin, but there was also someone who looked incredibly familiar passed out on the floor.

"Barry?" Eddie dropped his gun and ran towards the fallen speedster.

"He's unconscious." Joe looked sorrowful as he gazed at his son. "We need medical attention over here!" he shouted into the empty hallway before repeating the request through his radio.

"He's so broken, Joe." Eddie couldn't believe it. They had searched for a very long time for his omega pack member, and now that they had found him, he was broken to an extent that must be irreparable. His fingers, broken. His thigh, savagely cut. His abdomen, sliced open. His entire right side, burnt. There was a pool of blood around him, and it was so much. It must be too much.

Eddie gripped the forensic scientist's unbroken hand.

"Let's try to stop some of this bleeding." Joe went to the most serious situation in the room which turned out not to be the baby at the time. He ripped some of the sheets off the bed and held them tight over Barry's abdomen and thigh.

Eddie's hands put more pressure on the areas. "He's going to need stitches: a lot of them." He mumbled.

"Yeah," the elder detective had tears in his eyes. "What do you think they were trying to prove with this?"

Eddie shrugged, and suddenly, the baby cried out again.

"I got this," the younger detective gripped the sheets and held them down.

"Who's the baby?" Joe picked up the baby and automatically started doing the same rhythmic motions he had done for Iris when she was little.

The younger detective blinked. "I...don't know. Did they leave any information behind?"

He looked at the table the bin was resting on. "Yeah." His voice went hollow as he read through the paper.

Eddie swallowed thickly before managing out, "What does it say?"

"Well, she was actually only born today." Joe started out.

"And?"

"She's Barry's." He swallowed. "And yours."

Eddie raised an eyebrow and glanced at his omega before looking back up. "Where'd they get my DNA?"

"You a sperm donor?" Upon Eddie's nod, Joe continued. "There's your answer."

The younger detective looked over to the baby girl in her grandfather's arms. This was his daughter: his and Barry's. She was unharmed. It appeared that the pack would have a new addition. And what did Joe say? That she was born only hours ago? Damn, it was his daughter's birthday, and he didn't even know it. But that meant that Barry just gave birth to her, right? Was that what that slash across his abdomen was?

"They couldn't even be bothered to sew him back up after they took her out." Eddie growled. No one touched his omega; he briefly glanced at the rise and fall of his chest just to ensure that he was still alive.

Joe looked out the door hopefully. "Medic's here." He quickly moved out of their way.

One of the medics put her hands on the cloth covering Barry's torso and relieved Eddie of his work.

"Is this Bartholomew Henry Allen, age 26?" A different one inquired for confirmation.

The elder detective nodded. "Yes."

"And who's this?" they gestured to the baby in Joe's arms as Barry was loaded onto a stretcher.

Joe looked at his granddaughter. "Allen's daughter."

"Allen a omega?" the medic asked politely.

He nodded. "Yes."

"Thank you, sir. If you two could come with us, that would be lovely. We need a bit of help in the main room." The medic walked out of the room, Joe and Eddie quickly following them. "Do you know if Allen has any family besides his daughter?"

Eddie answered this. "Yes, yes he does. Joe and I and the rest of Barry's and mine pack."

They blinked. "Oh my God, I'm sorry. I didn't know Allen was close to you."

"It's okay." Joe wrapped Nora tighter in the blanket.

"Do you know if his daughter has a name yet?" They were writing on a clipboard as they quickly made their way to the main area.

Eddie shook his head. "I don't know if Barry named her yet. He might have."

The medic understood, and the four of them arrived in the main room. It was chaos. According to Detective Khan, Eiling had been captured and likely killed by the Green Arrow, but before the capture, he had made a decision that either he gets the metahumans or no one does. He shutdown every life support system in the entire facility before being presumably shot by Oliver Queen.

As a result, nearly every emergency vehicle in the county and the counties surrounding it were deployed in the facility to try to keep these metahumans alive while the doctors tried to get to them.

"I would understand if you guys wanted to travel with Mr. Allen in an ambulance, but we really need help here." They flicked their eyes to where Barry was being loaded onto one of the many ambulances in the area. "It would be easiest if the baby went in the ambulance with him. We need to make sure she's healthy too."

Joe nodded and maneuvered Nora to hand her to Eddie. "You go with Barry and make sure he's safe, got me? Anything happens, and you'll be hearing from me and Iris and the rest of your pack."

Eddie understood this and took his daughter into his hands for the first time, marveling at how small she was.

"And get in contact with STAR Labs. You know how worried they are right now." Joe tried to keep a brave face on as he saw his son's blood on one of the doctor's hands.

"I will." the younger detective promised as he stepped into the ambulance with the other medic.

The elder detective flinched ever so slightly as the siren started ringing from the top of that ambulance and as it took off. He stood there, completely by himself and surrounded by strangers, people who needed help.

He had a duty to them.

In STAR Labs, everyone was crowded near a television clutching their cellphones. Any time now, they should receive a call from Joe or Eddie or even Oliver, right?

"We haven't heard from them." Felicity tapped furiously at her computer.

"They'll call." Iris sounded confident as her eyes remained glued to the screen.

 _"In a stunning turn of events, Eiling's facility has been raided, and over one hundred fifty metahumans have been freed under the cooperation of the Central City Police Department, Keystone City Police Department, Starling City Police Department, and the Green Arrow. It has lead to many questions. Was Eiling sane when he did this? What were his goals? Did he achieve any of them? Stay tuned for more information."_ The reporter on the screen stated factually.

Suddenly, Caitlin's phone rang, and she picked it up immediately. "Eddie?" she asked hopefully.

Cisco, Iris, and Felicity suddenly stopped what they were doing to look at Caitlin expectantly.

"Which hospital?" she asked and wrote down an address.

Felicity took it and mouthed 'I'll go start a car' when she realized that the pack would probably want some alone time. They'd fill her in when they came down.

"They what?" the doctor's mouth became a straight line. "And....they were successful with that?"

Iris craned her head to try to listen in, but the volume on Caitlin's phone was much quieter than any of theirs.

"How's Barry doing? Was he conscious when you found him? Did he sound delusional?" she quickly began stalking towards the exit, and Cisco and Iris rushed to follow.

"Oh...so he was unconscious?" Caitlin nodded at whatever Eddie said before swallowing. "How's she doing then? Healthy? I guess that's one good thing."

Iris and Cisco couldn't hear their conversation, but they could quickly tell that Caitlin was shocked beyond belief at what Eddie was reporting.

"I'll see you there." the doctor hung up and allowed herself a few deep breaths to calm down. It seemed like whatever Eddie had told them had been shocking and perhaps even devastating (at least for Barry).

"What'd he say?" Cisco questioned.

Caitlin glanced at him briefly before answering. "He's on his way to the hospital to heal from his injuries. He had a lot of them and wasn't conscious when Eddie and Joe found him. And..." she trailed off.

"And?" Iris gently pressured.

"Eiling made Barry have a baby using some of the sperm Eddie donated a while ago." She stiffly replied.

"He what?" Iris was furious. "Did he already have the baby?" she inquired at a lower volume.

"This morning apparently." Caitlin responded.

The three of them quickly entered the car, and Felicity didn't even wait for them to take off their seatbelts before she started the vehicle.

"What's going on?" she practically demanded.

The doctor explained once more the basics of what was going on.

"How'd they do that? Isn't Barry a male?" Felicity blinked a few times before gasping. "Oh, right! I forgot that Central City had to deal with that metahuman a little while back!"

Iris nodded. "Barry's an omega, so he could technically do that. But..."

"The fact that Eiling forced him to is horrifyingly cruel?"

"Yeah."

The drove on in thick silence, none of them willing to break it.

"Do you think he has any...mental injuries as well as physical ones?" Cisco broke the silence as they approached the hospital.

Caitlin considered this. "To be honest, probably, but it cannot be correctly determined until he's been closely examined."

The hospital waiting room was crowded with what was probably the families of some of the other metahuman victims.

The group of four made their way to the front desk.

"How may I help you?"

They could tell that the poor receptionist was tired.

"We're here for Bartholomew Henry Allen." Iris told her.

She plastered a tired smile on and searched his name on her computer. "I'm sorry. He's in the middle of surgery right now. He did wake up for a short while before passing out again. There is his daughter however. She's in a different room and accepting visitors. In fact, she has a Mr. Edward Thawne in there right now."

Iris smiled at her. She was trying to be as helpful as possible despite being overworked. "Yes, yes please. Does she have a name?"

The receptionist blinked. "Yes, Mr. Allen told Mr. Thawne her name before he passed out again. He named her Miss Nora Constance West-Thawne, and she is in room 235."

"Thank you." The group made their way to the room.

So that is what Barry named his daughter. Iris should have guessed that he'd name her after his mother, but the middle name was new. Though, he would have had a long time to think of one. The surname was interesting however. Why did he not call her Nora Allen? Was that too close to his mother? She could understand if he gave her Eddie's last name only since she was also his daughter, but Iris was not her mother. Was it a pack thing?

Cisco responded to her thoughts as if he could hear them. "He probably called her West-Thawne because you two are the alphas of the pack, and Nora is a pack child." He bit his lip. "At least, Samantha Hunter said that children of the pack would be raised by the entire pack and take the pack surname."

Iris frowned, worried about Barry. "But it's not the pack surname. We all still have our own last names."

"Maybe she wanted that to change." Caitlin shrugged.

Felicity walked quickly. "I'm worried about Barry." She admitted.

"We all are." Cisco reassured.

"Yeah, but what do you think Eiling did to him? To have to have surgery so soon...it must have been a real emergency." She bit her lip.

Iris's face hardened. "Eddie'll tell us."

They walked on until the made it into the room.

"Eddie?" Iris opened the door.

It was one of those rooms where mothers usually stayed to recover with their babies, but the bed was empty. Barry was in surgery. There was a white board on the wall with statistics on the baby. Nora Constance West-Thawne. May 9, 2015. 7 lbs. 3 oz. Eddie was standing by the window holding the baby in question, eyes glazed over as he watched people pass by in the parking lot below.

"They tortured him, Iris. For months." Eddie looked up after a couple of moments.

The rest of the group made their way into the room.

"There was so much blood when we found him." He stared at his daughter, who was asleep and blissfully unaware of her surroundings.

"Will he make it?" Iris questioned fiercely.

The detective swallowed. "The doctors are hopeful. They think that he will if they can fix some of his organs."

Caitlin's face went hard. "What do you mean 'fix some of his organs?'"

"They gave him a C-section this morning and didn't bother putting him back together afterwards." Eddie smoothed out some of his daughter's copper colored hair.

Cisco's mouth hung open in shock. "What the....why did they do that? I thought they wanted him for some kind of test, not to kill him!"

Eddie shrugged. "We don't know exactly what Eiling wanted to do with Barry specifically. There is a lot of paperwork that has to go through, and I don't know if Barry really even wants to know what he was doing. Besides, Oliver probably stopped Eiling from telling us directly."

Felicity sat down from shock on one of the chairs. "What else did they do to him? You know, besides creating Nora." She twisted awkwardly.

The detective's mouth tightened. "I don't know. There was so much blood. His entire right side was burnt to a crisp, you see. And his hand was mangled beyond recognition. And his thigh was missing almost all of its skin. And there were scars. Scars from what must have been months ago, but Barry didn't seem to know about that. He told me that he had been unconscious for months when he woke up. And his right eye..."

"What about it?" Iris was feeling kind of queasy by the time he got to here.

"It was clouded over. I don't think he can see out of it."

They were silent for a long moment.

"How did Barry...sound while he was awake?" Caitlin hesitantly asked.

"Well, he was shocked to wake up in an ambulance. Kind of paranoid I guess. He rushed out his sentences like he wouldn't get another chance to say them. Hysterical maybe? I don't know. I'm sorry." Eddie shifted Nora a little bit.

Cisco bit his lip. "And who's this?" He changed the topic of the conversation to Nora.

"This is Nora." Eddie was glad to not be pressured to say anything else for now as he presented his daughter.

"She looks a bit small for a baby her age." Caitlin was concerned.

The detective agreed. "Yeah, she's a bit premature, but the doctors thought she was healthy." _If only Barry could be the same way._

"Does Barry even want her?" Iris asked, concerned.

"It sounded like he did." Eddie nodded.

"I guess we really need to get around to looking for actual houses now." Cisco groaned a bit.

Caitlin pursed her lips. "Yes, I guess. Dr. Wells said that he would help when the time came, but he's away right now. I called him earlier about Barry; he's on his way over."

"Do you guys think Barry will be....ready for that?" Iris hesitantly asked.

"We will only be able to know if Barry tells us." the doctor answered, and the group sat in silence with the newest pack member, waiting for reassurance from Barry's doctor.

It didn't come.


	9. The West-Thawne Pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even if they aren't married, the pack is still the pack. They will always be together no matter what curveballs the hospital could throw at them....right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own the Flash, so I apologize if anyone is out of character.

Several hours later, a woman wearing blue scrubs marched into the room with a clipboard in her hand and a mission. Everyone else looked up quickly in alarm.

"Hello," she forced herself to smile before getting to business. "To the best of my knowledge, you are the family and friend of Mr. Bartholomew Allen?"

Caitlin nodded, handing Nora off to Iris before standing up. "Yes." She confirmed, suddenly all business.

The woman adjusted her stance. "There were complications in the surgery."

"What do you mean by that?" Iris had fire in her eyes. Barry couldn't be dead, could he? Wasn't that usually what doctors said to lead up to that?

"For some unknown reason, Mr. Allen has fallen into a coma." The doctor answered her calmly. "We have labs running to try to find a reason why, but we were hoping we could ask you for some background medical history?"

A coma? Not again. Iris shook her head, frowning intensely. The last time Barry was in a coma, it had been months before he got out of it. Hell, the doctors then, probably the exact same doctors that were here now, asked her and her father if they wanted to list Barry as DNR. Do not resuscitate.

Caitlin glanced at the rest of her pack and Felicity. All their faces were hard.

Cisco nodded. "Yeah, we can do that for Barry. To the best of our knowledge, of course." It had been hours since he last cracked a joke.

"There is someone who may know more than us, but he's in Iron Heights." Iris mentioned, knowing how frantic Henry Allen had been throughout the past couple of months. Joe had made it his mission to keep him as up-to-date as possible when legally acceptable.

The doctor sat down in a chair across from the rest of them. "We'll only go to him if we cannot decipher anything from what you have." She stated. "I'm Dr. Thompkins. Now, we have on our record that this is not his first coma, correct? The last one lasted about nine months though the majority of that time was spent in STAR Labs."

Caitlin confirmed this. "Yes, Cisco and I were two of the people in charge of looking after him back then."

"Oh," Dr. Thompkins straightened. "That makes things easier. Was there anything out-of-the-ordinary then? For a coma patient, I mean."

She crossed her legs. "He has severe tachycardia." Caitlin was not sure if the doctors had discovered his secret identity yet, so she planned to keep it a secret unless it became necessary to reveal it.

The other doctor wrote this down. "I understand that that coma was induced by a lightning strike the night of the particle accelerator explosion? Was that the incident that turned him into a metahuman?"

"Yes," Eddie answered this one.

"And what exactly are these abilities he received?" She inquired.

The pack glanced at each other nervously.

Felicity was the one to speak up. "Barry wants to keep that a secret unless it is absolutely necessary for it to be revealed."

Dr. Thompkins nodded in understanding. "All right. We'll get back to that later if it is necessary. Has he ever had the need for any type of specialist? Ophthalmologist, cardiologist, et cetera?"

"He had many therapists and psychologists throughout his teenage years." Iris mentioned.

She looked at her paper. "Yes, it says that here. Did he have any type of trauma recently or earlier on in his life that our scans did not catch during his last stay? Anything that could have caused some hemorrhaging."

They glanced at each other. Dare they describe his Flash activities? Luckily, Eddie came in with the obvious answer.

"He was at Eiling's for the last eight to nine months." He looked annoyed. "That's why he is here. It is very likely that there was a lot of trauma then."

Thompkins wrote this down. "I'm just trying to rule out the causes for a coma. Miss West, you said he had only been to therapists and psychologists? Has he ever been to a nephrologist?"

"To the best of my knowledge, no." Iris shook her head. "Why?"

The doctor looked up. "Sometimes, kidney failure can lead to a buildup of urea in the bloodstream, and this can disrupt neuron functioning in the brain."

"No, I don't think he's gone before."

"Is Mr. Allen diabetic by any chance?" She inquired.

Iris shook her head.

"Does his family have a history of diseases such as autoimmune disease, polycystic kidney disease, meningitis, encephalitis, epilepsy, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, aneurysms, cancer, or cardiovascular diseases?"

The group slowly ticked through the list.

"I don't think so." Iris frowned. "We don't have that much information, sorry. His only living blood relative is in Iron Heights."

The doctor took some detailed notes on that piece of information. "Does he himself have high or low blood sugar?"

"He does commonly suffer from hypoglycemia." Caitlin's eyes gleamed. "Ever since the particle accelerator explosion, his metabolism has worked at speeds beyond which STAR Labs has ever seen."

The doctor smiled at her and quickly wrote that down. "Hypoglycemia can also cause a coma, but that would be reversible when his blood sugar is returned to normal."

"Is that the cause of Barry's?" Eddie inquired.

"It's possible." She stood up. "Thank you for your time." The doctor looked to Nora. "She's a very quiet baby."

Iris nodded. "Yes, she is, but she's asleep right now."

Dr. Thompkins nodded in understanding and quickly left the room. "I will send for someone when you can visit him. Right now, the doctors are trying to get more work done while he is unconscious. Mr. Allen did not respond to any of our anesthesia, so we had to do it while he was naturally unconscious. But I assume that is due to his metabolism again?"

Caitlin agreed. "Yes."

Eddie groaned. "I should have told them that at the very beginning." He rested his head on his hand. "Joe's going to kill me."

"No, he won't. You were preoccupied; the thought didn't cross your head." Iris reassured.

"But it should have!" He protested.

"None of us know of all the effects his speed has on his health. Hell, remember how we had just discovered his sleeping problem before he..."

"Was taken?" Eddie deadpanned. "Yeah, I remember."

Caitlin frowned. "We're probably going to have to send him to more doctors, you know. I don't think he'll like doctors very much after all this is over."

"You mean specialists?" Cisco questioned.

The doctor nodded. "Yes. If Eddie's observations about Barry's eye is correct, he probably has no sight there. We can't know for certain until the tests come back or Barry confirms it himself, but we should probably prepare for the worst."

Iris swallowed a little before glancing down at Nora. "I wonder how Joe's doing."

"He's probably throwing himself deeply into his work at the facility to take his mind off of what is happening over here." Eddie responded. "I would too if I were him."

"I know, but when do you think he'll get back? He has to know how Barry is doing." She frowned.

"Singh'll probably go easy on him. Has been for the last months though Joe still pulled the long hours." He yawned, checking the time.

Iris stared at Nora and let the rest of reality fade into a blur. Nora looked so much like Barry, more than she did Eddie. Her hair was auburn colored, slightly different than the speedster's but similar at the same time. Iris knew that eye color would soon probably change from blue though it was possible that she would keep Eddie's color.

She remembered when she and Barry were little how he was always one of the sweetest, most caring people in the entire world, but it seemed like those whose hearts were largest suffered the most. Barry had gone through so much. He was bullied, subjected to numerous therapists and psychologists by a foster father who didn't believe in what he said, comatose for nine months and now again, forced to hide his spectacular metahuman abilities, tortured for months, forced to carry a child for eight months. His mother had died, his father imprisoned. Now, he had made it out of his torture room, but Iris knew that the struggle for him to be healed had only just begun.

It would take months, years to fix what was broken if it was even fixable. She was unsure if Central City would ever get the Flash back again or if Barry would give up that life. How would he be mentally? Would he suffer from nightmares, delusions, hallucinations, flashbacks? To be honest, most likely. Iris didn't know what was in store for the future, but she knew that Barry could not do it alone. He had been basically incapable of taking care of himself before this incident happened, so how could he be able to do so now? He would need help keeping himself on track. Central City could not lose the scarlet speedster, and the scarlet speedster could not lose himself.

Combining that with Nora, Barry had a lot of responsibility on his shoulders that he probably did not expect to have. He had to make sure he didn't stumble and fall, but he also had to ensure that Nora was healthy, right?

Barry could not possibly do it alone, so it was a good thing he wouldn't have to. He had his pack on his six, and they were not planning on leaving anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a list of stories I will want to be writing in the future posted on my profile, so feel free to check it out!


	10. Consciousness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry's conscious again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own the Flash, so I apologize if I write anyone out of character.

Consciousness was overrated.

Why was it better to be conscious, to feel the pain and the agony left behind by the various grotesque injuries left by Eiling than to be blissfully unaware and ignorant to his body's condition? Why was it better to be able to contact people he cared about when he had made due for eight to nine months (Barry was a bit hazy on that) without them? Why was it better to acknowledge what had been done to him rather than stubbornly plow on without a care in the world?

Because he couldn't be selfish, of course. Barry knew that better than anyone. He couldn't be selfish ever or take anything for granted unless he wanted his life to come crashing down on him like a tower of playing cards on a windy day. People relied on him for his good heart and humor, and if he were suddenly gone, people would cry, be upset, despair over his loss.

And he couldn't do that to them. Not to Iris. Not to Joe. Not to Cisco. Not to Caitlin. Not to Eddie. Not to Oliver or Felicity or Singh or Central City. He had to smile, be happy, be perfectly fine all of the time to keep them happy with him. The results otherwise would be catastrophic.

And so when Barry finally cracked open his eyes, he saw the faces of his pack, his family looking at him with faces of utmost concern. Well, he only technically saw them with his left eye since his right one obviously wasn't functioning properly. Fantastic.

"Barry?" Iris was the first to speak, shocking the rest of the group out of their sleepy stupor.

"Bar?" Joe was there too; it must be a few hours after he had gone out. "How are you doing?"

Barry stared at him, at all of them for the first time in months. Well, he had seen Eddie briefly, but he hadn't had time to really _see Eddie_ then. He had been frantic then, trying to get as much information out of the scarlet speedster as he could.

The forensic scientist didn't respond to Joe, but he did reach his hand out to the person closest to him: Caitlin.

"Barry, you can't do that; you'll tear out your IVs." The doctor slowly urged the arm to go back to its place.

Had she just rejected him? After all these months, did Caitlin just reject his touch, their relationship? Tears sprung into the speedster's eyes at the thought.

Caitlin's eyes watered at the sight of the fallen hero. Once so strong, so brave, so compassionate, but fallen into a state of misery and despair. "Okay, I guess I could hold your hand, but don't take out the IVs. It's helping you get your glucose levels back on track, Barry, so you don't fall into another coma." She nudged her chair closer to the speedster.

Perhaps she hadn't rejected him? Or maybe he had looked so pitiful that she felt forced to touch his mangled body.

Dr. Thompkins came in before the pack could grill him on his wellbeing again. "Good afternoon, Mr. Allen. You gave us all quite a scare here, but we are hopeful that you'll be able to get out of here soon. You did fall into a coma from your hypoglycemia. I assume it is chronic since the particle accelerator explosion?" She looked towards the speedster for an answer.

Barry did not give one; instead, he squeezed Caitlin's hand a little bit and looked into her eyes. That seemed to be enough to get his message across.

"Ah, yes." Caitlin confirmed this.

Thompkins smiled at him kindly. "We did have to do multiple surgeries on you while you were unconscious, Mr. Allen. We grafted most of the visible parts on your body where there were burns, but you must understand that too much at one time can be dangerous. Your uterus had been sliced and left open along with the skin and muscle on top of it, but unfortunately, infection was starting to set in by the time we got here. We saved all of the tissue that we could. It is a similar story for your thigh as well. For your hand, we surgically corrected many of the dislocations and fractures, but you will require physical therapy if you hope to ever regain complete control over it." She finished and stared at her patient.

The scarlet speedster looked away from Caitlin and started looking at Iris, reaching out for her with his other hand.

"Mr. Allen, I know this is a lot to take in, but you need to keep your hand still if you want it to heal optimally." She looked concerned as the IVs pulled at his skin, but the speedster didn't seem to care at that point.

Iris immediately stood up and moved to his other side, but she did not grip his hand. It was his right one, heavily bandaged and in some weird metal medical device that she didn't want to mess with.

Barry frowned. Why wouldn't she touch him?

"Will there be any scarring we'll have to be concerned about?" Caitlin inquired.

Dr. Thompkins seemed to be relieved that someone acknowledged her; she must have practiced this before she came in. "With every surgery, scarring can be expected, and Mr. Allen's wounds were significant and infectious when he was brought in. We were able to graft some regions of his body, and we focused on the visible ones first. Which is why there are some bandages covering the right side of his face; we are hopeful to prevent scarring in that location. We did try to save as much tissue as possible, but yes, extensive scarring is expected on many areas of his body."

"Do you hear her, Barry?" Iris leaned forward to the speedster.

Barry squeezed on Caitlin's hand again, but he did not open his mouth. He had said few words in the last eight to nine months; the only words that came out of his mouth were too shameful to think of. He had begged. He had begged Eiling of all people.

"He can." Caitlin reassured her. "He is understanding and comprehending everything around him; he just doesn't want to talk right now."

"Why not?" Cisco looked tired, more tired than anyone else. He hadn't slept for longer than any of them because he had spent days on his computers trying to find Barry behind their backs. They never let him go too long without sleep, so he had to sneak out.

Barry flicked his eyes to Cisco at the sound of his voice, stared at him for a little bit, glanced at Dr. Thompkins, and returned to stare at the beta.

"I don't think he's comfortable with strangers." He spoke awkwardly.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I'll wait outside if you want a moment. We have tests running right now, and if all goes well and nothing bad happens, we could discharge him in a few days." The doctor informed and marched outside purposefully.

Eddie waited until the door closed behind the doctor. "You wanna talk now, Bar? We brought Nora with us; the doctors said that it might be beneficial to the both of you to be in close contact with one another." He showed Barry his daughter, who still did not cry.

Barry stared at his daughter for a brief moment before removing his hand from Caitlin's and reaching out in the direction of Nora. Eddie, immediately seeing this, moved closer and put his chair next to Caitlin's. The speedster touched his daughter's hand, and Nora grabbed onto his finger. He stared longer.

"You wanna talk now?" The younger detective in the room repeated.

The forensic scientist swallowed and nodded. "'Kay." His voice came out hoarse and raspy from disuse.

"Everyone at the CCPD's been missing you, buddy." Eddie tried not to stare at the intense bandages on his omega. "I'm sure they'd appreciate it if you let them visit when you're up to it."

Barry nodded once more. "Later."

"Later's good." He let out a breathy laugh. "They've really been missing their Babyface. Did you know that Detective Huron sees you as the CCPD's mascot? You know, the young and cute one?"

"Maybe then. Not now." The speedster shook his head.

"I wouldn't say that." Eddie looked sympathetic, and Barry hated it. He ignored it however. "The doctors are fixing you up the best they can, and while you won't look as good as new, you'll still be perfect the way you are." The detective could feel the approval radiating from the speedster's foster father.

Barry snorted lightly. "And here I was thinking that the mascot was Detective Pretty Boy."

Joe let out a loud laugh at that one. "Both of you are true."

"I guess we make one hell of a tag team then, Barry." Eddie was relieved that he was still able to make those jokes.

They fell back into silence again, and Barry stared at his daughter who still hadn't let go of his hand.

"So, since I need more sleep then all of you, does that mean I'm exempt from late-night parenting duties?" The speedster asked.

"I'll practice some good bedside manner and let you believe that for now, but when she wakes us up at three in the morning, know that I'm gonna kick you out of bed since you're the fastest." The detective answered him.

Barry tried to pout, but it was obvious that he could not do so at the time. "I thought I wasn't allowed to flash around the apartment."

"Well, I'll tell you what, Barry." Eddie decided. "We're going to try to get a house. An actual house instead of an apartment, so when we do, there will be areas blocked off from normal vision of the public. In those areas, yes, I'll let you speed around like Sonic the Hedgehog."

The speedster laughed a bit, but it was one of those tired laughs. "I knew I had you wrapped around my finger, Eddie."

"So it seems you do." Eddie grinned a bit.

The room was silent for a few long moments, interrupted only by Nora's crying. To be honest, Eddie was kind of relieved; babies her age should be almost constantly crying. This was the first time any of them had seen Nora do so.

Barry's finger zipped away from his daughter at lightning speeds. "She doesn't like me, does she?"

"I wouldn't say that, Barry." Felicity shook her head sadly. "She's a baby, and babies cry."

"She didn't cry before, and she is now that I've touched her." The speedster was clearly distressed on the matter.

Was he a bad father? Did he do something to her to make her feel this way, and would it continue forever?

"I'm sure you're her favorite, Barry." Eddie tried to get her to stop crying, but it didn't really work. "She's probably just hungry or something; she is your child after all."

Caitlin's eyes gleamed nervously. "You're right; she could have gotten the metahuman gene. I'll see if we can get her some food."

"No, no!" Felicity stood up frantically. "This is your...pack, I believe the word is. I'll get it." She rushed out before Caitlin could get another word in.

Barry frowned. Did Felicity want to get away from him too? He knew she was naturally an awkward person, but he didn't recall her being so adamant to leave the room before.

"My dad?" The speedster spoke those words after a few short moments.

Joe sighed. "Unfortunately still at Iron Heights."

"You mean the Reverse Flash hasn't come back up yet?" The scarlet speedster looked on in despair.

The elder detective shook his head. "No, he hasn't been really seen since you last saw him, Barry."

"Could he have been at the facility?" Barry felt uncomfortable with the notion.

"I don't think so. Eiling was collecting metahumans, those affected by the particle accelerator explosion. He obviously had his powers years before it." Joe shook his head. "I don't think looking in that direction would help us much."

The forensic scientist nodded in understanding and looked at his daughter again.

"You can touch her, you know." Eddie started again. "It's not you she's crying about, Bar." He nearly pleaded with the speedster.

"How do you know for sure?" He inquired genuinely.

"Because babies don't do that. She came out of you, Barry, and she was attached to you literally for months. That's not a connection that would go away instantly." The younger detective reassured. "You know what? I want to try something. Tell me if it hurts you though, Barry."

The speedster was confused for a moment and narrowed his one visible eye. Eddie stood up from his seat with Nora and leant over the speedster. He placed his daughter on her belly on the forensic scientist's chest and moved his left hand, so it was holding the baby girl in place.

Barry looked down at his daughter in surprise and found that the crying slowly ceased after a few moments. His daughter fell back asleep on his chest, leaving the scarlet speedster stunned.

"Of course." Caitlin marveled slightly. "Babies can be calmed down sometimes by hearing their mother's heart beat."

"See? She doesn't hate you." Eddie grinned victoriously.

And so it seemed. Maybe being conscious wasn't too bad after all. Nora obviously didn't hate Barry. She had cried when in contact with Eddie, but Barry was able to calm her down. They had that sort of connection, right?

Caitlin suddenly glanced at the heart monitor. "Barry, you're getting really excited about this."

Barry nodded. "Yeah."

And suddenly the heart rate monitor went completely flat with a single tone being heard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy. :)  
> This chapter was heavy on the Thallen, but I promise that more sides to our pack (such as Westallen, Barrisco, Westthawne, etc, will be coming in later!)


	11. Flatline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The machine said that Barry had flatlined, but is that truly the case?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own the Flash, so I apologize if I write anyone out of character.

Before that condemning, single tone that rang out from that god-forbidden machine, Barry had felt a lot of things. He had remembered moments throughout his life, flashing back to times he hadn't thought about in years and reliving it fully.

When he was twelve, he remembered little except brooding, running away, going to therapists and psychologists from here to Gotham and back. The rest of that time had been a mere blur, seemingly so repetitive. He would yearn to see his father for perhaps just a few moments, but the scarlet speedster would be denied that. He would constantly be in a bad mood, convinced that Joe only wanted him to suffer. Why else would he keep him from his father?

So, if Joe hated Barry, why couldn't Barry hate Joe? Barry had despised the detective for a little while, hated him for taking his father away from him for something Barry knew he didn't do. He had saw what had happened: the Man in the Yellow Suit had killed his mom. The Reverse Flash. Did anyone believe him? No. For years, psychologists tried to pinpoint exactly what mental disorder he could have been suffering from besides depression, anxiety, and possible PTSD. It didn't work since he didn't make it up. It wasn't in his head, so there was nothing that could be done.

He had had to get away from Joe and to his father no matter what. Joe was only stopping him from seeing one of the only people that Barry knew for certain cared about him.

So he tried to get to his father. He tried so many times, yet Joe caught him every single time. He never made it close to Iron Heights on one of those trips.

This had caused him to feel increasingly worthless throughout his life; there was no hope left for him. He would never see his father again; that was that. Iris had sensed that too.

And what had Iris done? She had tried to engage Barry in many different ways whether it was comforting him while he broke down or nodding along as he talked about complex sciences that she didn't quite understand. She tried to keep an even temper with him and never get too mad, knowing that he already felt that her father was against him.

Of course she would have gone to him once she started menstruating to talk to him about it, to engage him in a conversation on human biology. Barry remembered that moment clearly as being one of the highlights of the year. Iris had entered his room in her jammies one afternoon after school (all her comfortable clothes were being washed) with a book in her hand and a look of fear on her face. Even though she knew that Barry enjoyed talking about science, she could never be truly certain if he was willing to talk about it now or if he just wanted to be alone and sleep for the rest of the day.

Barry had naturally been trying to figure out a way to get by Joe without him noticing. He had to get to his father somehow; how was he supposed to know whether or not he was okay? He had been stressing over that subject for the past year, almost never taking a break. He had begun to collect newspaper articles upon newspaper articles about his mother's murder, his father's imprisonment, or any article about anything of a more supernatural nature occurring. That day, he had started tearing at his hair hard out of his skull and crying what seemed like rivers. It was so much, too much, for one twelve year old boy to handle. No one believed him despite him telling the truth.

Iris coming in with that American Girl Doll book was a welcome distraction. Joe had bought her that book, not quite sure how to explain this to his baby girl himself; the detective had told her to read it to understand what was happening to her body.

Needless to say, she never read it. She did not have the desire to read it, but Joe never had to know that. Barry had immediately engaged her in an interesting conversation about exactly what was happening to her though he did use some of the pictures in the book as reference.

And, of course, for Iris to figure out what a tampon was and how it was used. On that matter, Barry had no idea what was going on.

When he was six years old, he remembered going to his cousin's funeral. His cousin, Kylie, had been the last living relative of the Allen family; all that was left were him, his mother, and his father.

He remembered his mother breaking it to him slowly, remembered not quite knowing what it meant to die.

All of his bullies laughed at him mercilessly for that fact. Barry had only been in first grade at the time, but the other children were still ruthless in their assaults.

It wasn't Tony Woodward who made him understand what it meant to die but his henchman Tom Edelstein. Tony may had joined in if he were there, but fortunately, he had neglected to finish his homework and was therefore held in during recess. Tom had finished his however, so when he came outside with no best friend to play with, he started searching out other means of entertainment.

And it seemed like the bully had chosen Barry Allen for that entertainment. Barry had been silent most of the day; he understood that was what he was supposed to do when mourning. But mourning what? He did not understand the concept of death, what it meant to die. Surely, he would be able to visit Kylie again that weekend and listen to her speak to him awkwardly around all the tubes in her face?

His father had carefully explained to his son that his sixteen year old cousin had something called 'cancer,' and he might not see her again. Barry asked where she was going. If Kylie was going somewhere, why shouldn't he follow? Wouldn't she feel abandoned if she suddenly stopped getting visits from her only family left?

It just so happened that they were doing their first ever lessons on life and biology. To be fun, his first grade teacher, Mrs. Penelope Lennon, had bought several baby chicks that she could show to them and tell them about how those baby chicks would someday grow into chickens. Tom had found one of those chicks to be a very important part of his lesson.

Once he learned about Barry's predicament, he had decided that it would be best to, ah, teach his fellow classmate. Now that Barry was older, he sympathized with Tom for doing so. He was driven into a corner by peer pressure and abusive parents, and his only sibling had succumbed to a drug overdose at the age of fourteen. Tom had been frustrated that Barry got to live such a 'pain free' life that he didn't know what death meant. He wanted Barry to understand that he would never see Kylie again, wanted him to feel the same pain that he felt once his brother died.

He had held one of those chicks up by the neck in front of Barry, ignoring the chick's uncomfortable choking squawks and Barry's protests of 'You're hurting her!'

Tom had merely twisted the chick hard and suddenly in front of the speedster and let the baby animal fall limp to the floor. "That's what death is, Bartholomew." Tom had stalked away with an angry expression on his face.

Barry remembered staring at the animal's totally still and lifeless form for a few minutes before approaching the small, dead creature. She wasn't moving. She wasn't breathing. She wasn't making any noise.

Tom said that this was death, but his father said that once someone died, he didn't get to see them again. He could see this chick now, so was she dead? He rested his hand on top of those feathers, clearly recalled how he felt the animal's temperature slowly begin to decrease.

He understood now. He understood it all now. Death didn't mean that someone was going on vacation or anything. It was permanent. It wasn't the body leaving but the soul, everything that made Kylie who she was. Kylie too would be laid like that in front of him during her funeral, so lifeless, so unresponsive, so cold. He would not be able to talk to her. She would not be able to tell him to "run circles around everyone" before tests or quizzes on simplistic math.

In fact, she would never do anything again. She wouldn't be there for anyone, not just him. She would never grace anyone else with her kind personality or charming humor ever again. She was just gone. Just that. She would never crack jokes about the hot nurse that would take care of her. She would never again get back on the basketball court despite swearing that she would one day when her cancer was gone. She would never be able to watch the next episode of  _Family Feud_  even though she was really excited to see the next episode. She would never get rid of her cancer; it would remain in her body now.

Barry remembered crying and screaming suddenly, unable to take anymore revelations about all the things his cousin would never do.

The funeral hadn't been much better.

When he was ten, Tom Edelstein finally got expelled from school. He had never been caught for killing the chick. In fact, Barry himself was punished for going into the area without teacher supervision. They had all assumed that he had accidentally killed it. As usual, no one believed his side of the story.

Tom Edelstein had gotten off scot-free and continued to make the scarlet speedster's life a living hell for the next four years. He had never gotten caught throughout the entire time, and no teacher ever believed Barry when he tried to speak up about all the things that child was doing to make his life horrible.

No one noticed until they were both ten. Barry remembered that he had been helping his father's business: selling cocaine. He doubted that Tom himself knew what the cocaine was or what it did to the human body, but he knew that Tom knew it was wrong and had to be kept a secret unless they wanted the police to come knocking.

He hadn't had much success in selling it to children nevertheless. No one was interested in it really; they didn't know what it was due to the American education system failing in regards to drugs and alcohol. No teacher had ever told them that it was good for them, but then again, no one said it was bad either. Tom had been able to sell some, but many children didn't have money to buy it in the first place.

Frustrated, Tom had become more and more careless about what he did with the cocaine, and it was found in Mr. George Gray's room right before the school let out for spring break.

Needless to say, Barry didn't really appreciate the police investigation that followed, and still, no one ever believed him about what Tom had been doing in the years prior.

Most of all, however, Barry remembered being at Eiling's facility. He had been unconscious for most of the time, but he knew for a fact that Eiling and his doctors had run all sorts of strange tests on him during the time when he was unconscious. He wasn't sure what exactly it was or if he even still had all his internal organs. Maybe he was missing a kidney,  maybe not.

But he was conscious for part of it, and that part had been painful. They had burnt the majority of his right side and done so much more, triggering a premature labor. Did Iris and Joe and Eddie and the rest of his pack and everyone else in the entire goddamn city expect him to forget that immediately? Of course they did. They needed their hero, the Flash, not a broken victim.

It was doctors that did this to him whose names would live on with Barry for eternity. Dr. Hopkins. Dr. Lee. Dr. O'Connell. All of them.

And then Dr. Thompkins came in, dressed in scrubs and holding a clipboard, asking about his status physically. She was monitoring his injuries just like Dr. Hopkins had in the facility.

It only registered with him later that he had been clutching onto another doctor, Dr. Snow. He had let her go too and had his finger held by his daughter.

His daughter. Nora. She couldn't suffer the way he had, but how could he ensure that he didn't? It seemed like anyone sharing his genetic code was doomed for death or life-long imprisonment. What if the Reverse Flash came after her too? The Reverse Flash was so much faster than him, and he wasn't even sure how long it would be until he could run without his intestines falling out. Nora had to be safe, but safe was impossible. Only safer was possible.

He looked okay enough outwardly when his daughter was on his chest, but internally, it was a different story. Barry was confused. What did his pack expect of him? What did the CCPD expect of him? What did the city expect of him? He wouldn't be allowed to keep low anymore. He had to protect his daughter, and what better way to do that than by being the Flash?

Suddenly, the heart machine flatlined, but he was perfectly fine.

"Tachycardia." Caitlin pursed her lips. "You're okay, right? No pain anywhere?"

He stared at the doctor. She's a doctor. Doctors were the ones who hurt him and wanted to hurt his daughter.

"Right, never mind. Of course there is pain." She retracted her statement as a team of doctors ran in.

Great, there were more of them. And they brought all their equipment as well. Despite knowing well enough that that was there to restart his heart if he needed it, he couldn't help but feel fear towards it. What if they wanted to do something with it that wasn't necessarily legal?

The doctors were startled to see Barry perfectly cognizant and handing Nora back to Eddie, not wanted her to be near the dangerous medical equipment.

"Mr. Allen, is it possible that the cause of this was merely a metahuman-gene caused bout of tachycardia?" Dr. Thompkins spoke up again.

Barry glared at her with all he could. He wanted to get her and all her colleagues and their medical equipment as far away from him and his daughter and his pack as humanly possible.

Go away. He tried to communicate this message over and over through his eyes.

"Er, yes." Caitlin eventually answered for him. "This used to happen all the time when he was comatose as well."

"Is it possible that he may be suffering from hyperthyroidism as well?" Thompkins stopped talking to Barry, focusing on Caitlin. She was asking a responsible adult the questions, one who wouldn't behave like a child, like an invalid.

Barry did bother listening to Caitlin's response. Instead, he sunk back down in his memories, reliving times from when he was thirteen, eight, seven.

Screw reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy. :)


	12. What Lies Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More people come to visit Barry, and he is eventually released from the hospital. But will he be able to deal with the trauma and reintegrate himself back into Central City?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own the Flash, so sorry if I write anyone out of character.

The next few days were a blur for Barry. After that first encounter, he had withdrawn himself from the pack once more. He had not spoken since; his eyes remained glazed over when they were even open. It was obvious that he wasn't really with them at that time. No, instead he was reliving his life and what happened to lead up to this very moment. He was reliving moments from when he was six, eleven, nineteen, seven.

They were in no particular order at all, just a random conglomeration of thoughts, feelings, smells, tastes, sights, sounds from when he was younger. It didn't matter what it was about. He had gone from eating ice cream with his mother when he was eight immediately to being burned alive at Eiling's facility from a little less than a week ago.

Life was a rollercoaster.

There were a few instances where he was truly with his pack, with the people there, but they were rare. He mostly laid their supine and allowed his body to heal at incredible speed. Every now and then he'd catch snippets of conversations going on around him.

"-has to be coherent?"

"When---til discharge?"

"-know, David."

"He's not okay-"

"-Oliver!"

"Is this Nora?"

"-Babyface always-"

"He'll have to testify-"

Barry slowly blinked the glaze off of his eyes, allowing them to get some moisture. There were different people than there were before. Felicity wasn't their; why wasn't she there? She had been there before; had she decided that he wasn't worth his time? Was the sight of the damage done to him too grotesque for her?

Of course she left. What had he done to make her stay? He had zoned out and flashed back to parts of his life, leaving the outsiders in silence.

The pack was still there though Cisco was taking a nap on one of the chairs. That and there were some other people. Joe was still there, but Oliver and Singh had also stopped by. There were some cards at the foot of his bed carrying the nickname that the scarlet speedster immediately associated with the CCPD.

No one had noticed that he was finally aware of his surroundings. The forensic scientist (could he even call himself that anymore?) was sure that he had technically been conscious before, but he hadn't interacted with them or anything. He scanned the room, enjoying the bliss he had before he would undoubtedly be bombarded by questions. Hell, he had heard the word 'testify' as he was going into and out of awareness, and the speedster definitely wasn't excited to know what that was about.

Barry glanced over to Eddie. Like everyone else, he looked completely exhausted; the detective held his daughter and rocked her as she cried.

She was crying--something that Barry was sure he couldn't have been the cause of this time. He hadn't been touching her, hadn't even been aware of her presence--maybe that was the problem? He hoped not.

Instinctively, the scarlet speedster reached out towards his daughter, clasping his fingers gently around her hand. The detective's attention suddenly jolted upwards towards him, but he looked relieved.

Eddie broke out into a weak smile. "Hey, Bar."

"Hi, Eddie." His voice was hoarse, so very hoarse from disuse.

The room had gone silent, and the speedster knew that there were so many pairs of eyes on him without even looking. The last time he had been observed this closely was at Eiling's. He tensed and tried to shrink back into the bed that he was on.

Joe immediately saw this; something on a slightly smaller scale had been present after Nora Allen's death as well. He coughed and loudly said, "Anyway," and continued on with his conversation with Singh and Dr. Wells. They followed his lead.

Barry's eyes flicked around the room, trying to find someone he knew he couldn't relax around. Oliver was there; he couldn't relax around Oliver. No, he always had to be completely aware or suffer from getting shot. And since he hadn't been very aware recently at all, he definitely had to make up for lost territory.

"You're okay, Barry." Caitlin reassured hesitantly, not waking Cisco up. He wouldn't like even more attention.

The speedster's eyes quickly flashed over to her. He was okay? No, no, he couldn't be. She was a doctor, and he was never okay around doctors. Doctors were the ones who broke his hand, mutilated his thigh, and burned his right side. Doctors were the ones who scarred him beyond the point where he could easily identify himself and made him unsure about whether or not he could see out of his right eye. Doctors were the ones who cut him open to get to his baby girl and left them there open to the elements and infections, intestines practically outside of his body cavity. Doctors were the ones who injected him with the sperm cells of Edward Thawne and Georgia Lopez and impregnated him and forced him to carry his baby girl for eight to nine months.

No, no, he was not okay. He was very far from okay. The scarlet speedster doubted that he would ever be okay again. He had been okay at one point, but that seemed like so far away from now. There was a time where he could have laughed freely and spoken normally, but that time was not now. He was broken beyond recognition on the outside and on the inside. Why would anyone want to be around him? No one liked playing with broken toys.

"No," this was Oliver. "You're not okay, Barry, but it'll get better. I promise." He corrected the doctor but was uncomfortable with how terrified the speedster seemed.

Barry looked at the archer, raked him with his eyes, practically stared into his soul. It was as if he was testing Oliver to see if he was good or evil. Oliver got a sick feeling when he thought about which side their resident doctors resided on to Barry. They were doctors; he didn't trust doctors. If they weren't good in his mind, did that make them evil?

But the forensic scientist showed little cues as to how he felt about anyone in this room. He could be fine one moment, but if someone stepped a little to close to him, he could be on the verge of a panic attack.

The archer stared at Barry, unblinking and not moving his eyes away. He maintained eye contact, hoping to build trust. It seemed like his plan worked.

"Yeah, okay." His voice was still so pitifully hoarse.

Iris leaned forward slowly. "Do you want me to get you anything, Bar?"

Barry thought more about his past, but he avoided leaping off of the edge into unawareness thankfully. He wanted some reminder of the only person he knew cared about him when his mom died. The only person he could be knew still cared about him, will always care about him. But that person was unreachable.

"Bar?" His first best friend and love of his life asked again, more gently than he thought was possible from her.

He swallowed heavily, tears filling his eyes against his will. He noticed how the conversation in the background slowed. Joe was obviously still trying to keep some attention off of him, but he needed to know how his foster son was doing too.

Iris stared at him with such genuine compassion in her eyes.

"I want my dad." The speedster started out quiet, but he generally got louder and more hysteric as he continued saying, "I want my dad. I want my dad. I want my dad. I want my dad!"

The heart beat monitor started to increase with speed.

"Barry, calm down. You're safe here, okay?" Iris bit her lip hard.

He shook his head violently. "There is no such thing as safe, Iris! No! Such! Thing! Eddie's place was supposed to be safe; no one was supposed to know where that was. But he did! He knew where it was, and he came right on in." He gripped the sheets hard with his left hand, his right hand fighting hard against the pins still in it.

Oliver gestured to the nurse call button, but Iris shook her head.

"You are safer here than you were there." Caitlin added on.

"And that is exactly what you would say!" Barry bit his words at her harshly, showing for the first time outwardly his wariness for her.

The doctor blinked, not quite knowing what he was talking about. "Barry-"

"No! NO! I've heard everything from you, your people. I've heard everything! You're going to try to get me to calm down somehow, which is not going to work." The speedster emphasizes the last few words. "It's just not! I'm done with falling for lies and other bullshit handed to me by you people! You could at least be brutally honest; it was a lot easier when you people talked about me like I was a maggot or a worm." His eye twitched.

Singh muttered to Joe, so Barry couldn't here. "We can't get Henry Allen in here--innocent or not."

Joe nodded. "I know." He had pain in his eyes.

Dr. Wells frowned. This wasn't how the Flash was supposed to end up. He was supposed to continue on with his life, get married to the other four of them including Dr. Snow. Maybe history had changed again? Barry had had a daughter; there was a chance that this daughter would have the speed gene and would be his ancestor. Would he be able to continue with his plan as soon as he saw the spark of speed in Nora West-Thawne? He assumed so.

"I'll figure something out." He rolled out of the room, ignoring Joe's suspicious glare. "Have the video chat feature on hand."

The speedster's foster father understood and took his phone out.

Back with Barry, Caitlin looked desperate. "Barry-I don't work with Eiling. You know that, right? Please tell me you know that."

The forensic scientist gave out a frustrated yell, "I don't know anything anymore!"

Suddenly, another doctor entered the room It wasn't Dr. Thompkins; the pack hadn't seen this one yet.

"Excuse me; is everything all right? It sounds like, ah, Mr. Allen is in distress here." The doctor nervously shifted on the balls of his feet.

Barry shot a downright terrifying glare towards the man; he couldn't stop some electricity from shooting around his eye. "Get him out of here, Eddie."

"Barry-"

The forensic scientist only continued to glare at the poor man.

"I'll, uh, I'll be gone then? Just checking. Mr. Allen isn't my patient, but-" It was obvious that he was a new intern here as he hastily left the room.

Barry was left breathing heavily before he collapsed back down, limp on the bed. His eyes began to glaze over as he thought about what he did.

Had he yelled at Caitlin? Caitlin was a member of his pack, and he accused her of working for the enemy, being a criminal. How could he do that to her? But she was a doctor, right? Doctors hurt people. They cut holes into their bodily cavities and drained the spinal fluid out of their central nervous system. They left surgeries unfinished, patients with organs halfway out of their bodies. They left shells of people, confined them to a bed for eternity. They injected foreign fluids into people and used them as a foundation for a new experiment.

It had all been there. There had been Dr. Lee, Dr. Nguyen, Dr. Hopkins, Dr. O'Connell.

Maybe a Dr. Snow? A Dr. Wells? It was entirely possible; there were too many doctors in his life.

"Come on, slugger."

Barry blinked again, the glaze leaving his eyes. How long had he been thinking that time? Joe was holding his phone in front of Barry's face; on it, Henry Allen was in his prison garb across the glass barrier, holding one phone. The other was undoubtedly in the speaker of the other phone.

"Dad?" He whispered. Tears sprung into his eyes.

"Hey, slugger." The father obviously had tears in his eyes as well, but he had a weak smile too. "How are you doing?"

Barry swallowed heavily. "Dad, they put her into me."

Henry looked confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Nora!"

The innocent yet convicted man understood. His son couldn't be talking about his mother, but Joe had filled him in on what happened while Barry was swimming around in his thoughts. "Those people were evil, Bar." He couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Then, why were they not locked up in your place?" The speedster frowned. "Fate sucks."

"That, it does, son." Henry agreed. "You want to tell me what happened?" He offered an outlet.

Singh glanced at Joe. What would they hear? Would they soon know something they didn't before, something that would make convicting more of the unlawful doctors even easier?

"They burned me alive, dad. It hurt so much." Barry didn't seem to register that other people were hearing his words; he just focused on his father. "They needed a larger than usual biopsy and tore up my leg. I don't even know what they did to my hand. Dad, I was unconscious for so incredibly. I don't know. Every single time I closed my eyes, she would come back dead."

Henry's brow furrowed. "Who would?"

"Nora. She didn't exist then though. Well, she did, but she wasn't born yet." His words came out faster and faster, bordering on super speed and almost incomprehensible. "She did exist since she was in me and not really just a clump of cells anymore, but she was there when I was unconscious. Before she was born, I knew exactly what she would look like, and she kept on dying, dad. Dying in every way imaginable."

"Slow down, slugger. Take some breaths."

"I wanna go home."

Henry avoided biting his lip. "I hear that you'll be discharged soon. You going to go back to your apartment?"

Barry shook his head. "No."

"Where to then?"

"I want to stay with Joe."

Joe looked incredibly shocked at this revelation. And sad, too. Not because he didn't want Barry there but because of what Barry must be feeling to make that decision.

Henry agreed to this. "Yes. You stay with Joe and don't get too bogged down, slugger. You've been through a lot. Let yourself take a break, but don't forget to visit your old man, yeah?"

Barry allowed himself to smile a little bit with tears in his eyes. "Yeah, I'll go."

And just like that, it was done.

Hours later, nearly everyone was asleep.

Cisco coughed as he woke up, noticing how everyone still in the room were unconscious. "What the hell did I miss?" He wiped the sleep out of his eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy. :) If anyone has anything specific they would like to happen in this story, please tell me and I'll try to include it!


	13. Time Will Heal All Wounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That was definitely a lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, so sorry if I mess up the characters!  
> ALSO SORRY ABOUT MY LACK OF UPDATES RECENTLY AS I WAS INSTITUTIONALIZED FOR DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND OTHER RESULTS FROM SEXUAL ABUSE.  
> #metoo

Barry barely spoke to anyone besides Eddie, Oliver, and Joe. After talking to his father previously, the scarlet speedster had suffered a huge panic attack later on during the night that got all the doctors running to check on him.

The reason? His dad was a doctor. Henry Allen was a doctor. Doctors were bad people; all they did was torture and kill. Barry would know too. After all, he had witnessed that cruelty firsthand at Eiling's facility in both himself and others. They used archaic torture techniques as long as it would help support some hypothesis. On top of that, he remembered long ago in the past how his cousin, Kylie Allen-Robinson, was killed by doctors. Nowadays, people can get treated for cancer, right? So why did she die?

He had been vaguely aware of more visitors coming and going. Some of the CCPD officers became boisterous and rowdy upon seeing one of their department mascots and were asked to leave, but the forensic scientist wasn't too mad about that in all honesty. In fact, all Barry felt was relief.

Wells had also guided Caitlin out of the room, and although Barry was guilty about it, he was relieved. They were both doctors. Who knew how many people the two of them had tortured and killed in the past? Maybe they even worked together. Maybe the Particle Accelerator Explosion was just a big experiment.

Barry was aware that his thoughts were going wildly off the charts, and he tried to rein them in. No, Caitlin never would have made the particle accelerator explode on purpose. She lost Ronnie in that accident and was devasted for so long after that.

But what did they do while he was in a coma the first time? He couldn't help but wonder.

"All right, then." Dr. Thompkins was back in the room and speaking with Joe instead of Barry since she knew he wouldn't even glance at her. "Mr. Allen is fit for discharge but will have to undergo physical therapy unless that is taken care of by his metahuman gene. I would, however, recommend psychiatric treatment." She spoke bluntly.

The speedster's head snapped up. "I'm not going to a shrink."

Iris swallowed nervously. "Barry, they can help you."

"That's exactly what you said last time." The forensic scientist scoffed, quickly remembering all the times he had been sent in his teenage years. It never ended well.

"I would personally recommend that he gets evaluated at Central City's Garza Center." Thompkins continued.

Joe looked pained. "We'll consider it."

"If he is unstable, there will be no-"

"I said that we'll consider it." He stressed, putting his head on his hands.

The doctor looked sympathetic. "Okay, Mr. West. I'm glad to hear that you will all consider it. I will get the discharge papers, and Mr. Allen can get his bandages changed by his PCP. He will require a wheelchair for the time being which the hospital will provide, and we encourage him to not do anything too strenuous to avoid exacerbating his injuries. And wherever he goes after discharge, we will require another responsible adult to be with him to help him take care of himself and his daughter."

"Thank you," he nodded at her.

The doctor quickly left the room without another word or another look at her patient.

"So, Barry." Cisco sat up next to his friend. "How are you doing?" He asked the dumb question.

"Anakin Skywalker." Barry deadpanned.

Cisco laughed uneasily. Was he supposed to laugh?

"Hey, Bar, do you want anyone else beside me at the house while you get better?" Joe realized that someone would have to take off from work to help Barry. It would probably be either him or Eddie as Singh would definitely understand.

"Nora."

The elder detective acknowledged this. "Anyone else?"

Barry scanned the room. "They can come and go as they please, I guess."

"What do you want, Barry?" Eddie asked gently.

"You." The speedster pointed to the younger detective.

Joe nearly sighed. That pretty detective had stolen the hearts of both of his kids, and there was nothing he could do about it. "We can find somewhere for Eddie to sleep. Anyone else?"

Barry made a sweeping gesture with both his arms towards his chest as if he was giving an invisible person a hug but didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry, Bar. I don't know what you mean." His foster father spoke honestly.

"Unit."

Joe bit his lip. What did this mean?

"The unit...." Cisco had a thoughtful look on his face. "Do you mean the pack?"

"Yes."

He understood. "Even Caitlin?"

Barry blinked hard. "She's a doctor."

"Yes."

"Doctors hurt people."

Cisco sighed. "Only evil ones do. And our Caitlin certainly is not evil."

"I know." The speedster paused. "But she's a doctor."

"She is." He spoke clearly. "Do you want her with you or not?"

Barry shifted uncomfortably. "Nora needs to be safer."

"You want her to be safe. Understandable." Cisco was being serious. He didn't even have candy on him (it was confiscated by the hospital staff).

"No such thing as safe. Only safer." The forensic scientist stubbornly insisted.

He crossed his legs. "Would she be safer if Caitlin is around?"

"She's a doctor."

"I'm sorry, Barry, but that tells me nothing." Cisco replied.

The speedster swallowed. "She's Caitlin."

"Yes! She's a doctor and also Caitlin. Would she harm anyone?" He asked.

"She's a doctor."

Cisco bit his lip. "We've established this, Bar. She's a doctor. What does it mean?"

"Doctors hurt people. They cut into them and spill their blood and intestines onto the floor and write it all down on a fucking clipboard." Barry glared a hole into the ceiling from where he lied.

He brought his hand to touch the other man's left. "That was then."

But the speedster wasn't done. "They slice and scrape and break and  _burn_ , Cisco, and it always hurts so much. It isn't going to stop. It won't stop; it won't end."

"Caitlin only does what is necessary to heal someone." Cisco explained.

Barry stared at him and flatly said. "She's a doctor."

And that was that.

That had been a while ago. Barry had been discharged from the hospital and was wheeled out of it. He didn't say anything as Joe carefully maneuvered him into his old bed.

For the rest of them, the sleeping arrangements were a bit weird. Joe wasn't exactly comfortable with his baby girl sleeping with her pack, but as she said, she was a grown woman. They placed Nora with Joe for now as he already knew how to care for babies, and Barry was barely coherent most of the time. The pack pushed back the purchase of their own home to wait for their omega.

"Hey, Bar." Eddie had volunteered to take off work that day to stay with Nora and Barry. "Do you want food?"

The speedster looked up from where he was glaring at where the cast on his right hand went over the rest of the bandages. "No."

"You sure? You don't want to get hypoglycemic." The detective mentioned.

"I said no, Eddie." Barry said.

Eddie sighed. "Well, you could either have that or an IV."

"What?" The forensic scientists whipped around.

"You heard me." The detective responded. "You're not taking proper care of yourself by not eating. You know that you need to eat, Barry. I know you do."

"You're threatening me with an IV?" Barry felt his voice crack slightly. "No. That's not going to happen, Eddie."

Eddie frowned. "You need the nutrients."

"And I will get them when I feel like it! Which is not now." The speedster decided.

"Barry-"

Barry shook his head. "No."

"Fine." He gave in. "But I expect to see you eating later. I'm going to go feed Nora."

The forensic scientist stared at his mutilated hand after the other man left the room. Eddie was only trying to help him, so why did he feel like he was trying to hurt him? The speedster thought about how his alpha had suggested an IV for nutrients.

Suddenly, he wasn't in the present anymore. He was no longer in his bedroom but in that sterile facility. He was no longer mutilated but new, fresh, and uninjured. He was no longer damaged but naive to what hell he was about to endure. He was no longer at a stable temperature but at a fluctuating one caused by his heat.

Barry wasn't even going through any of the worst bits of torture, but he still got the shivers.

"Comfortable?" It was Eiling again, clear as day.

"They are going to find me you know." He responded.

"I've already told you that they aren't even searching for you, Barry. Sure, we had to sedate them, but now that you're gone, a huge weight as probably been lifted from their shoulders. You're a burden, Barry. A burden to everyone you know. You're much more useful here. At least you are contributing to our knowledge."

"That isn't true."

"How do you know?" He felt the bite of Eiling's words again.

"Because I know them."

"Now, Barry. You hid how many conditions from them because you didn't want to be a burden? Trust me, we both know the truth. Now, Dr. Jonas and Dr. Lee both have syringes full of semen. One is that from a metahuman, the other is from a normal human. In fact, it is from your own Eddie Thawne."

The speedster challenged him after that. "And how did you get that?"

"Isn't it obvious? He donated it to us. Eddie was thrilled to finally be rid of you. He thought of you as competition and too much work to be a good addition to his pack despite being a rare omega. He gave it to us because he wanted this to happen. Both of them will be injected into your uterus with one injection every hour until your heat is complete. We will have to see which person was more successful at impregnating you. Metahuman alpha or normal alpha? By the way, in case you were wondering, one of the possible parents is in the far bed."

Barry briefly thought of Georgia Lopez. Where was she now? Was she even alive or was she dead, killed by Eiling's doctors and experiments? Was she in a similar condition to himself?

"Georgia Lopez. Female metahuman alpha. She was one of the first we collected after the little mutagen incident. She has the ability to bend light to her will. It's fascinating, really. We've been attempting to recreate her powers for our own use. Imagine how useful that would be for surprise attacks! Oh, and also, all her family is dead. Unless, of course, you can provide her with some."

He hadn't.

"Carry on with the injections. And remember, Flash, you're finally doing something useful."

Suddenly, Barry was back in the present. What was that? Why was he suddenly in the past? He knew that sometimes people had flashbacks to previous events, but it wasn't like he was traumatized, right?

Right?

The forensic scientist sighed. He glared at the door. What if Eiling had been right? Eddie threatened to give him an IV, and Eiling had those doctors give the scarlet speedster plenty of those. There had to be a connection, right? It was too much of a coincidence elsewise.

Barry shook his head, ignoring the rustling of his bandages. He was being ridiculous; deep down inside, he knew that the alpha was only making sure that he was getting proper nutrients.

But what if?

The scarlet speedster tensed and made fists with both of his hands. Pain shot through the nerves of his right hand like a bullet whistling through the air, and Barry groaned. But at the same time, he couldn't necessarily say it was bad either. The speedster felt his heart rate slow a tad bit from its normal pace. The fog lifted from his mind.

Barry stared at his hand in morbid fascination. Slowly, he clenched his fist once more, watching as the bandages and pins moved and tightened and reveling in the burn that followed.

Oh, this was so wrong on so many levels. Joe would personally kill him if he could see what he was doing right now, but the speedster found that he didn't care in the moment. As of now, the forensic scientist was only grateful for the relief and the rush that went through his veins.

The door creaked open on rusted hinges as Eddie opened it, and the scarlet speedster unclenched his hand at top speed. They could never know. He could never know.

"Barry?" Eddie's blue eyes found Barry's own. "Eat something, Barry."

The forensic scientist looked away and shook his head.

The detective sighed, having expected to receive that response. He pulled up a chair to the bed. "Why not?"

"I don't want to." Barry responded immediately.

Eddie nodded along with him. "But why don't you want to?"

The speedster paused. "Because-" He faltered.

"Are you scared of something? Wary of me? Maybe you want to retaliate or punish yourself." The alpha spoke gently. "Whatever the reason is, it isn't healthy, Barry. It will only impede your recovery and maybe land you back in a hospital."

The omega stiffened. If Eddie knew what the speedster had just done and enjoyed doing, his ass would be landed straight in the closest shrink. "With doctors?" He spoke warily.

The detective acknowledged this. "Yes, Barry, but there is no reason to be afraid of doctors."

Barry's muscles tensed. "I think there is every reason to be afraid of doctors, Eddie. They rip into and spill their blood and remove their organs. They place parasites inside people and allow them to grow until their removal. They break bones and sever limbs and char skin and melt the flesh off of people's fucking faces. Why don't you tell me why I should be unafraid? How dare you say that to me?"

"I'm sorry, Bar." Eddie's eyes softened.

The omega twitched. "And please don't ever do that."

"What?" The other man looked around in confusion.

"You're looking at me like I'm broken." The speedster mumbled, suddenly quieter. "I don't like it."

The detective's eyes widened as he understood. "Okay, Barry. I understand. I'll try to treat you the same, but I'm worried.....and scared."

"Of what?"

Eddie shrugged. "I'm scared that someone else will try to hurt my pack. I'm scared that you will be disabled. I'm scared that you might be suffering from a mental illness."

Barry blinked.

The alpha paused but continued once the forensic scientist made no move to speak. "So you should eat something." He encouraged.

The scarlet speedster glanced at the sustenance the detective was pushing towards him. "But how do we know that no one put anything in that?"

"We didn't know before." Eddie countered.

Barry looked wary. "All right..."

The detective gave a breath of relief as his omega ate a little bit for the first time in a while. "Iris will be over soon."

The speedster clumsily put the food down with his left, healthy hand. "What time is it?"

"About six." Eddie answered calmly. "I have to take the night shift at the precinct today."

Barry winced. He knew from experience that that was brutal. "Is it because you are here right now with me and Nora?"

"In all honesty, yes, but I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to be here." The alpha responded.

Just then, the wail of a baby girl could be heard. Barry instinctively began to rise, but Eddie put a hand on his shoulder.

"You aren't supposed to be using either of your legs for anything right now, remember? I got this." Eddie clicked his fingers as he marched out the door.

And as soon as that door shut, Barry squeezed his eyelids closed, trying desperately to block out the sound of his baby girl screaming, crying, wailing about something that was probably the scarlet speedster's own fault. It had to be his own fault.

The forensic scientist clenched his mutilated hand as hard as he could and allowed the pain to course through his body. He didn't relax again until he couldn't hear Nora's cries end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy. :) If anyone has anything they want to see in the story, please tell me!
> 
> Even though I do speak from experience for many psychological problems I write in my stories, I'm human and therefore an imperfect being, so if I make a mistake, please tell me! :)


	14. After a Month

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things had to have gotten better, right? Barry reveals more of what happened at Eiling's to the audience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, so sorry if anyone Is OOC

A month had passed. A month full of pain and suffering. A month where Barry was uncertain of whether or not he was dreaming. Not that he informed anyone of that development. A month later he was finally free of bandages and wheelchairs.

Things would come to him at seemingly random times. Things that he tried to forget. Things that were to painful and traumatizing to remember.

_Barry stared at his baby bump in confusion. He had recently woken up, and he must have been out for a long time._

_Bored, the scarlet speedster looked around the room. There were no scientists in the large white room at that time, but the forensic scientist knew better than to question why. Eiling had gleefully explained to the "experiments" that they were going to test how they were affected by freedom. Barry didn't quite know what the crazed general meant by that, but he wasn't all too eager to find out._

_Suddenly, every single restraint in the entire warehouse opened mechanically except for the metahuman power drainers. They were capable of getting up, walking around, but not many people did._

_There were a few who eagerly maneuvered to the side of their bed on unsteady limbs, but they were shaky after months of immobility. A few metahumans took time to converse with one another and planned to escape. The scarlet speedster knew that that wasn't going to work immediately. They had no powers and didn't even know where they were. If they got out of the warehouse, they would be recaptured instantly, and Barry didn't want to risk the punishment._

_When a few people began to slowly break the drainer that kept them weak, armed guards suddenly flooded the area. The forensic scientist winced. While he didn't tell them to do that, he didn't tell them not to do that either. Did that make it his fault?_

_Every metahuman but one was locked back up momentarily. The speedster vaguely recalled that the soldier who relocked his restraints told his comrades that he had stayed because he was a "bred bitch." Barry didn't respond; he wouldn't ever be acknowledged anyway._

_And what of that one metahuman who wasn't locked up? It was Georgia Lopez, the alpha who was part of the same experiment Barry was part of. She screamed, yelled profanities at all the soldiers from afar, sprinted to the speedster._

_"Barry! Please tell me that I beat Thawne. Please!" Georgia had tears in her eyes, and she brought her hands to her hair and began to pull hard._

_Large clumps fell out of each hand._

_The speedster was confused. What did she mean?_

_Suddenly, it dawned on him. She meant whether or not her sperm impregnated him. He looked helpless. "I don't know."_

_The alpha female let out a piercing scream that would remain with the omega male forever. She ran away to the door and started desperately beating at it, trying to get out._

_"I just want someone to love me! Please, I just want a family! Someone that cherishes me for me, not just for my powers! Please!"_

_She was tranquilized. The slang term for that was "booty juice" since the five-inch long needle was stuck into a person's rear end whenever they caused a Code Green._

_Code Green was for any fights or rebellions or just plain acting out. Anything that was getting out of hand._

Barry focused back in on reality as he clenched onto a kitchen knife. He was in Joe's house still. The scarlet speedster didn't quite know who else was here besides him and Nora, but he knew that whoever it was wouldn't appreciate him clutching a knife so hard he bled scarlet onto the kitchen counter. Taking a paper towel, he set the blade down and cleaned up the blood. The pain had momentarily stabilized him, but no one else could know or see.

He nearly collapsed on the sofa as he stared at his hand and waited for the wound to heal. It did rather quickly, and the forensic scientist breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Barry! You done making your sandwich yet?" Iris came in holding Nora.

The speedster paused for a second. So that was who was with him. He shook his head, having forgotten all about the stupid sandwich in the heat of the moment.

Iris frowned and walked into the kitchen. "Barry, you have to eat." She sighed, taking out the peanut butter. The reporter peered into the sink. "Is that blood? Bar, what did you do?" Iris whipped around.

Barry shrugged.

"I know you can do better than that."

"I was thinking about what happened at Eiling's, and I was so lost in reliving a memory that I subconsciously squeezed it until I bled. I stopped what I was doing once I noticed it!" He defended quickly, knowing the look she was giving him.

Irisp raised her eyebrow. "You had a flashback?"

Barry shrugged. "I guess."

"And being cut by a knife grounded you." She bit her lip.

"I didn't do it on purpose, Iris!" The forensic scientist insisted.

The reporter allowed this. "Okay, you didn't do it on purpose, but don't do it on purpose in the future, you hear me?"

Oh, if she knew what he was doing now. "All right."

"Promise?"

"Yes."

She narrowed her eyes. "You better not be lying to me. You know how hard it was to get you out of that habit when we were younger."

He remembered very well.

"Now," Iris handed the omega his daughter. "I'm going to go get you some food." She went to the kitchen. "And I'll be talking to the pack about the knife thing!"

Barry really should have guessed she would do that. He looked down at his daughter. She looked so sweet and innocent, like everything that Barry strived to protect. And he would certainly protect her. Nothing would get to her without going through him.

She slowly opened his eyes as she woke up. They were bright blue, just like Eddie's. Barry wondered if they would change over time. He hoped they didn't. They more she resembled Eddie, the safer she would be. It was obvious that there was something wrong with him.

She squealed that high pitch squeal that babies sometimes make and squirmed a bit.

Barry breathed out a bit and gave Nora a half smile. Oh, if only she could remain innocent forever. But no, one day she would know about all his troubles. Someone would spill them to her. She would know everything he tried to keep a secret: his low self esteem, self mutiliation, flashbacks, everything. And she would despise him for birthing her in such inhospitable circumstances.

If she lived long enough to find that out, that is. She would always die even before she was born.

"Eat this." Iris pushed towards him one of her famous sandwiches and took Nora. He made a sound of protest. "No. Eat. Baby after eating."

Barry rolled his eyes and half-heartedly poked his sandwich. Some jelly oozed out of the side, red against the white paper plate.

_He was still obviously pregnant though this was several days before the freedom test. Barry believed that this was the cause of the experiment._

_On occasion, he would have a little bit of conversation with the woman next to him, Constance Davis. She was a beta in her early thirties with strawberry blond hair. Barry couldn't make out any other features from the distance and machinery._

_"How are you doing, Barry?" She inquired kindly, her eyes betraying the pain she was feeling as she was exposed to some sort of gas._

_He shrugged. "You?"_

_"I've been better." She laughed uneasily. "How's your baby?"_

_"They're okay, I guess. I'm not really sure." The scarlet speedster could barely accept that there was a literal baby inside him._

_Constance laughed a bit. "Yeah, I remember when I had my son. I was so paranoid about losing him too after my daughter."_

_The forensic scientist remember her admitting to him that she had suffered a traumatic miscarriage. "How did you know?"_

_The beta looked at the ceiling. "I went to my doctor. Mind you, she was specialized in obstetrics and not like any of these psychos. Speaking of, I better be a godparent or else." She warned playfully._

_He nodded. "And the father?" Barry genuinely asked._

_Constance smiled brightly for the first time in his presence. It was joyful to see. "Richard is the best man I've ever met although I do wish that he would sometimes do the laundry."_

_The omega gestured for her to go on._

_"He was my high school sweet heart. On prom night, young and so in love, we lost our virginities in the girl's locker room. Richard had snuck in. After a year, I discovered that somewhere along the line I got pregnant at seventeen. After a few months, we discovered we were having a girl. My father was so mad when he figured it out; we were just sitting on the couch when he began punching me in the stomach for no reason. I was coughing blood, peeing blood.....My dad told the hospitals that I had fallen down some stairs. Richard cried so much when I told him....and then Jonathan came a couple years later and we couldn't be happier." Constance sighed. "But I'm here now, and they are probably desperately searching for me. They could be out there right now in a dangerous part of town." Her breathing accelerated._

_Barry sensed what was happening. "Constance, calm down. They're searching. Everyone is searching for us. We will get out and make it to them."_

_"No! We'll never get out, and they will always be looking! My sweet, sweet Richard and Jonathan will be looking for the rest of their lives for someone they can't find!" She wailed and started flailing her limbs haphhazardly._

_Something must have hit a release switch because she was able to stand up. A Code Yellow sounded for subject out of containment. She hit the scientists who tried to get her back in her bed and slapped the tranquilizer away from her. A Code Green sounded too._

_Barry watched helplessly as he watched one of the only decent people in the warehouse have what must have been some type of psychotic breakdown. She screamed, cried, wailed for what seemed like an eternity even though it was a couple of seconds before she stole a pen from a scientist._

_She stole that pen and she drove it straight into an artery in the antecubital region of her arm. Blood squirted out of her like a hose, yet no scientist or doctor did anything as she collapsed. They just took notes on how long a metahuman beta took to bleed out._

_Three minutes later, a Code Blue sounded for subject has stopped breathing. Barry clenching his fist and squeezed is eyes shut as Constance was eventually loaded onto a stretcher and probably taken to be picked apart, dissected, mutilated._

_Blood was on the floor and the walls._

_Barry sighed. Constance couldn't be a godmother, but her memory could live on in Nora Constance West-Thawne._

"Barry? Barry?" Iris had set Nora down in a nearby bassinet and was shaking the omega.

"Iris!" He suddenly gasped.

"What happened? You weren't really...there." The reporter looked worried.

But Barry wasn't looking at her. He was staring at the wall and pointing. Iris looked and saw nothing.

"What is it? There's nothing there." She looked confused.

The forensic scientist shook a little, sandwich lying forgotten. Why would she say that she couldn't see it? It was right there!

But, truth be told, Iris West saw nothing. Every other pack member reported seeing nothing later on as well, but Barry, well, Barry saw blood slowly dripping down the walls and seeping up through the floor and squirting all over the place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy. :)


	15. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cisco, Iris, Caitlin, Eddie, and Joe have a talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, so sorry if anyone is out of character.

"It's nothing." Barry said for the fourth time that day. Iris had been continuing to pester him on what exactly he had meant earlier. There had been nothing there as far as Iris knew.

Barry knew differently. Blood had definitely been seeping out of that wall, but there had been nothing behind or within the wall. The scarlet speedster had checked. Did that mean it was some sort of metahuman? He wasn't sure. If it was, there was no guarantee that his pack would even let him anywhere near his suit despite the fact that his speed allowed the healing process to accelerate.

He walked out of the living room and sat on his bed. Why hadn't Iris been able to see it? Was it vibrating or moving at such a speed that it was perceivable be her? That might be true, but it didn't matter regardless.

"Barry!" A female voice called out to him in the distance.

The forensic scientist looked up in surprise. Was that Iris? It had to be. He stood up and made his way to where the alpha was; she was typing up a report. Meaning, it couldn't have been her. But who else could it have been? The speedster frowned and made his way back into his room.

Maybe it wasn't Iris, but she was the only one in the house. Or was she? Eddie or Joe or Cisco could have come home early, but he had never heard any of them make such a feminine sound. Still, the voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. Perhaps he hadn't heard it in a while.

But who could it be? He wouldn't be able to hear anyone but Iris, and it was evident that it wasn't her. He dimmed the lights in his room and laid back on his bed to think. Thoughts rushed through his head at millions of miles an hour. No one else was in the house, but Barry was sure that someone had said his name.

"Barry!" It was the same voice yet again. The speedster could now definitely say that the voice was not Iris; it didn't really sound like her. But it was still familiar.

Slowly, a section of the wall by the door began to darken and drip the red substance the speedster had seen before. Blood. Was the voice coming from inside the wall? Barry had checked last time the wall started to bleed, and no one was there.

Should he take that chance though? It was possible that someone was bleeding out just on the inside of the wall. The forensic scientist stood and began to vibrate at the correct frequency before checking. No one was there.

Then, why was the wall bleeding? His brain told him that there had to be a logical explanation, but he was picking at straws at this point.

"Barry, why have you failed at finding me?"

So she was somewhere. He just had to find her.

Meanwhile, Iris heard the doorbell ring, signaling that Captain Singh had arrived. She quickly opened the door, greeted, thanked him, and let him in. Singh had agreed to watch Barry while Iris met with Cisco, Caitlin, Eddie, and her father to discuss how the omega was doing. She had to tell them about the speedster's grounding habits despite the fact that he insisted it was accidental. It had taken a long time for her foster brother to get out of that habit when they were teenagers; Iris didn't want to have to have Barry go down that road once more.

The meeting was at STAR Labs in the Cortex. She hadn't been there in a long time, not since she had heard that Barry was in the hospital. Instead, she spent most of her time with her friends and family or at her job. Caitlin had been spending a lot of time there though. She didn't get to see her omega yet. The reporter felt her heart pang with sympathy for the doctor. She didn't blame Barry for being frightened and not wanting her around, but she knew that Caitlin probably felt very rejected and alone right now.

Everyone was waiting for her in the Cortex when she arrived. "Sorry," she apologized. "I wanted to wait for Captain Singh to arrive."

"No problemo." Cisco spun around in his chair. "So...what are we here to discuss?"

Iris bit her lip, trying to find a way to warn them without intruding on her foster brother's privacy. "Barry accidently cut himself with a knife recently, and he said that it grounded him from a flashback."

Caitlin's jaw tightened. "And you think that he might resort to self mutilation to control these flashbacks?"

The reported nodded. "That's what I'm afraid of."

Joe crossed his legs and sighed. "Well, then, we'll just have to lock up all the things he could use to hurt himself again for a while."

"He works at the CCPD in the lab nonetheless." Cisco frowned. "Aren't there a lot of things he could use there that he needs for his job?"

"Singh has a long term substitute in for Barry. He doesn't have to go back in yet." Eddie reminded. "We can wait until he's ready."

Iris furrowed her brow. "But who knows how long that will be? Plus, what about his Flash duties?"

"I don't want Barry to be running around as the Flash right now." Joe announced to the room.

"That's probably the wisest decision." Caitlin agreed. "But how do we break the news to him if he wants to go out?"

The speedster's foster father raised an eyebrow. "Blatantly."

"Barry'll understand." Iris was convinced of this. "I don't even think he has any interest in being a hero currently. Maybe later, but not right now."

Caitlin straightened in her chair. "Has Barry been doing any cutting that hasn't been accidental?" She inquired.

"Not that I know of." The reporter shook her head.

"If this sort of situation ever comes up again, ask him about it. He might get defensive, but Barry is usually honest." The doctor ordered.

"Yes, ma'am." Cisco sipped from his slurpee.

Iris felt uncomfortable about something. "I get keeping Barry safe by putting all sorts of restrictions on him and all, but what can he do? We can't just take everything from him."

"She's right." Cisco nodded. "He can obviously hang out and watch movies, right?"

Joe confirmed this. "Yes. We also usually let him have access to books and his phone."

This went on for a few hours, but Barry didn't know this. Hell, he didn't even know that his boss was in the house. Singh was simply hanging out where Iris was in case Barry did something.

The speedster had searched the house, but no one had been there. Where was she then? She had to be somewhere; it wasn't like he was going crazy or anything.

"You have failed again. Why can't you do anything right?"

There she was again. He tried to follow the sound of her voice, but once again, no one was there. Maybe all he had to do was talk to her? She could tell him where she is.

"Where are you?" He called out.

"That is for me to know and for you to find out." She taunted him.

Barry made a frustrated noise. "What is your name?"

"Call me Connie, sweetums."

The forensic scientist sat cross legged on the floor, careful of his thigh. It still hurt him from time to time. "How can I help you?"

"Find me."

"Where are you?"

She sounded sympathetic. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"Because you have to prove your worth."

Barry put his knees up pointing towards the ceiling. "You're not in this house, right?"

"I am. You wouldn't be able to hear me otherwise, dear."

"I've searched everywhere even in the walls. Why haven't I found you then?" He demanded.

She hummed for a second. "Maybe you just need a change in perspective? Something to really hone your senses. To ground you."

"I need to be grounded?"

"You can't help me unless you are."

Barry bit his lip. "How can I get grounded?"

"I think you already know the answer to that question." Connie stated. "Bleed for me, Barry dear, and you'll help me. There is a way to be good again."

There is a way to be good again, huh? Barry yearned for that; it had been so long since he did anything of importance. He felt like a monster.

He had to help this one person no matter the cost; therefore, he needed a knife.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy. If anyone has any suggestions, please tell me!  
> This chapter is also meant to be confusing at the beginning since it is in Barry's POV. If you are confused, just tell me, and I'll explain it!


	16. Constance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing! Sorry for not updating recently....PSATs

It was Constance Davis. Barry realized this with an arm dripping red liquid, staining the carpet red. Had she not killed herself? Was it possible that she was still around?

He assumed so; otherwise, she couldn't be here.

"I named my daughter after you and my mom." The scarlet speedster mentioned idly.

Constance looked dead on her feet. Her face was sunken, gaunt. Her hair looked more like straw, and she was as thin as a needle. "Good. Do you know what would make me really happy?"

"No." He shook his head. "What is it?"

"I never really got to see you. All that machinery in the way and all. Let me see you. All of you." She urged.

Barry stood up next to her. "You can see me. I'm right here."

"That's not all of you. Be good. There is a way to come back from being the villain." Constance reached out and touched him. Her body temperature was so off that he could have sworn that she wasn't really there at all.

"How?" He asked out of desperation.

"Listen to my words." She answered. "Follow my instructions."

Barry understood. He nodded, signaling this. What would she have him do?

"Take off your shirt." The beta crossed her arms as the omega complied.

The forensic scientist winced. He doubted he would ever come to terms with the scarred mass over the right side of his body. He would never be able to look down and accept what he saw, but he supposed that was just part of the job. If he still had the job of the Flash. Oliver said that scars were normal, so was he being unheroic by being uncomfortable with it?

"Do you see the stitches they put in you? The threads those evil doctors laced you up with to limit your mobility?" Constance pointed towards his abdomen.

Barry had wanted to take them out before, but Eddie had told him not to. He said that it was keeping his abdomen together while he healed from the botched c-section. "I see it. Should I take them out?"

"Yes. Rid yourself of the burden of having to see another of those evil creatures to take them out for you." An odd light shone on her face.

She was right. The scarlet speedster took the blade he had used to ground himself; it was still dripping with blood. Holding it up to his abdomen, he wedged the blade in between the first stitch and his abdomen. Holding his breath, he ripped the blade up. Tiny trickles of blood seeped out where he had poked the knife into, but that was to be expected.

He repeated this motion thirty-one more times with encouragement from his friend, the only one who truly understands what he went through in Eiling's facility. He couldn't trust anyone but her for she was always right.

There was definitely still a cut from where they had removed Nora, and Barry wasn't really sure why. Shouldn't his healing have taken care of that by now? Unless the doctors had sabotaged him.

"Check to see how deep the cut goes." Constance gestured to a box of old school supplies the speedster kept around for absolutely no reason. Well, he supposed that Nora might be able to use them soon enough. There was a ruler on the top.

The forensic scientist knew that that was the wrong way to check to see how deep a wound went, but he didn't really care right now. Constance told him to use the ruler, so he had to use the ruler. Standing up, black spots began to dance in his vision, and he nearly went down. He gripped onto a table and edged his way closer, ignoring the sparks of pain. They were just grounding him. That was all. He was being grounded.

He collapsed next to the box. Constance hadn't lifted a finger to help him; in fact, she refused to interact with any object. But Barry still took out the ruler and put the end near the cut. Holding his breath, he pushed the wooden stick further into his abdominal cavity, waiting for it to hit something and stop. This had to cause infection, but this was what Constance wanted him to do. He wasn't going to disappoint her; she had already been through too much in her life.

It felt like he was on fire. The ruler went in more and more, and the speedster didn't know if it would ever stop. He gagged and coughed, expecting himself to vomit over the floor.

And he did, but he did not let this stop him. He had a mission, and he had to complete it. Finally, it stopped, but Barry didn't bother looking at how deep it still was. He just showed it to Constance, who nodded with approval.

"What else do you want me to do?" The forensic scientist tried to support himself with his arms, but the cuts made them weak. He fell onto his back.

"Cut yourself open and show me your pretty veins. I want to watch the red blood stain the floor below you." She urged.

Barry bit his lip. Was she trying to kill him? He had to stick around to raise Nora if nothing else. "All right." He answered her reluctantly and after a moment of hesitation. He gripped the blade with his injured arm and held it up to his right arm, which still had a cast around his broken and mangled hand.

He took the knife to the burn scars and cut cleanly into where he knew a major artery was. He did not, however, breach it.

"Cut into it." Constance demanded, getting closer and growing more and more eager.

Holding his breath, he did what she asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy. :) I'll take any suggestions you have! If anyone is confused, just let me know, and I'll explain.  
> Constance was inspired by my own struggles against mental illness, so if anyone has questions about schizophrenia, I'll answer them too. :)


	17. Eobard Thawne

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thawne has a bit of fun in the Flash's moment of weakness and makes some untimely assumptions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing! Sorry if anyone is ooc

Eobard Thawne, better known as Dr. Harrison Wells at this point, wheeled his way into the secret room located within STAR Labs. It had been quite a long while since any of them had entered the building except for Caitlin and Cisco, but he couldn't help but feel annoyed when Miss Iris West felt the need to have a meeting in the Cortex.

"GIDEON, show me the future," he gave the overdramatic statement for response. "Show me the West-Thawne family."

There were many articles that the man from the future had little to no interest in. He had already scanned the article about their marriage, which would be soon after Barry's release from the consequences of his most recent little mess. He skimmed over their spawn, not terribly interested in their birth.

He was, however, incredibly devoted to the task of figuring out if they would have any metahuman powers. If one had his speed and would be able to pass down the trait to Thawne, then his place in the future would be sealed and Eddie Thawne would become expendable.

"Narrow the search to vigilantes." He ordered the computer.

Suddenly, all that he could find was the Flash for a very long time. Thawne assumed this would happen since there was no way any of their spawn would be allowed to speed outside the house and stop criminals. It was a dangerous job.

According to the records, around this time was a lapse period between when the Flash was active, meaning that soon, Barry would put back on that blasted scarlet, skin tight suit and leap back into danger. It wouldn't be for a little while though.

Scrolling through article after article, Thawne looked for any signal that any of their offspring had inherited speed. Nora Constance West-Thawne would eventually graduate from MIT majoring in Computer Science and would start a local business that would supply impenetrable firewalls for the CCPD, STAR, and many other places. He looked at the picture of the auburn-haired woman shaking the hand of the future mayor of Central City and frowned. She looked more like the scarlet speedster himself than Eddie Thawne, but the resemblance was still there. There was no telling whether or not she had inherited the metahuman gene yet.

He asked GIDEON to play any footage available with Nora West-Thawne in it. It was boring. There were hours of footage of just typing on a keyboard, but eventually, the speedster from the future found what he was looking for.

There was an instance where Nora West-Thawne was forced to reveal her little secret when her precious little business was robbed by what looked like common criminals with guns. Instantly, the men were unconscious in flashes of light.

Thawne smirked. She was it; she had to be.

Eddie Thawne just got dispensable, and he just had to make sure no one killed a baby. Easy, right? No one would dare to sacrifice an infant. His life certainly just got a lot easier since it wasn't like the baby was actively getting shot at on the job.

Relief flooded over him, but he still had work to do. If his new timing was correct, Barry's mess up had just occurred, so the speedster figured that it would be okay to antagonize him a bit. That's what enemies were for, right?

With new found energy, he activated his speed and ran all the way to the West house. Singh was still there, and Thawne knew that he had a few moments before the captain would realize that something was wrong upstairs. Zooming into the room without being noticed was easy, and he found his nemesis right where he expected him to be.

In his room on the ground in a pool of his own blood. The speedster was still conscious, but it likely would not last for long.

"Hey, Flash." He vibrated his voice as he sat down next to the weaker metahuman.

Barry's eyes slid in his direction, but he was incapable of making words to say to him.

"You were right about me killing your mother, but everyone knows that now." Thawne taunted. "Want me to kill the other Nora and make it two for two?"

He had never seen someone so wounded shake their head with such force. Blood bubbled at the other man's lips as he tried to defend himself, and his limbs became somewhat active in defense.

Barry would never remember this moment. He was borderline unconscious, so he'd probably think that he dreamed up the whole thing. Especially if he told his pack about it, they would be hesitant to believe him.

That gave Thawne the confidence to do something he didn't think he'd be doing. Taking a hold of his cowl, he brought it down to reveal his identity to the man he despised. In reaction to seeing his mentor, the speedster's mouth snapped shut and threw out his leg with as much force as he could muster in the direction of the other speedster.

It didn't hurt at all.

"You know," Thawne didn't bother vibrating his voice anymore. "I want to thank you first of all. You won't remember this, and you won't be able to tell anyone about it. It gives me a chance to speak my mind for once."

"H-How?" The word just barely came out of Barry's mouth.

"How do I know? How did I stay undercover for so long? What do you want to know, Barry?" He teasingly smiled. "I'm all answers."

He didn't receive a response. It seemed like the forensic scientist couldn't form any words through the blood anymore. There was quite a large cut on the omega's abdomen after all.

"I know that whatever this is won't work. You're gonna wake up and be surrounded by, you guessed, doctors." Thawne pursed his lips. "I've been told by Caitlin that you don't like them all too much. Is this true?"

Barry kicked at the ground to move himself farther away from the man. While it worked, the blood on the floor smeared.

"Well, Captain Singh is going to find you soon, and you're not going to see the light of day for a long time. That gives me lots of time to have my fun while you can't do anything about it. Capiche?" The speedster rose to his feet and started for the door.

Eobard Thawne stuck around the neighborhood in hiding and was only satisfied when he heard the sirens of an ambulance come closer and closer to the scarlet speedster, ready to trap him inside a hellhole once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy! :)


	18. Garza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Barry wakes, he isn't where he wants to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, so sorry if anyone is ooc.

There was a beeping sound. A goddamned, high-pitched, constant beeping sound.

Barry knew where he was. He was in a hospital, a place swarming with the doctors that forced his hand.

Why was he here? Obviously, Singh had called for an ambulance in a fit of panic, but as the Captain of the CCPD, he should have at least minimal training in medicine. So why didn't his boss just stick with what he knew and was comfortable with rather than thrusting him into another hellhole?

He shouldn't be here. He was told to do it; it wasn't his fault. They were not his actions, and he had to maintain a positive relationship with Constance. After all, Constance helped him throughout his time spent at Eiling's facility.

His chest tightened, restricting his airway and preventing him from inhaling the most likely dangerous and carcinogenic chemicals in the air around him. His eyes were squeezed tight.

What became of Nora? What became of his daughter? Constance had not given him any direction in that way, and Nora had been asleep at the time. And oh God, the man in yellow was in there, wasn't he?

His memory was clouded, and he could only pull out vague yet unsettling details about the encounter. For some reason, the Reverse Flash felt more...familiar than the forensic scientist could remember. It was almost like he knew him personally rather as just the man who murdered his mother.

Had he done something to his daughter? Barry's eyes flashed open, and he quickly moved to go check on her.

It didn't work. There was something holding him down, preventing him from getting up and checking on one of the only people he cared about at the moment. Caitlin had betrayed him as she was a doctor herself, and Barry had no idea what sort of trickery she had been setting up while they had a good relationship.

Oh God, someone had strapped him down and took away his powers. Perhaps this wasn't even a hospital at all. The last time he had been strapped down this way was at Eiling's, so was it possible that he was back there? Maybe he had imagined his entire rescue. Maybe Eiling had taken Nora away and was exposing her to pain and sorrow she should never have to know.

What sort of experiment would they be running with her or him? He had no information on the state of his daughter, but he knew that he himself would have to be in an isolated room again. Were they going to expose him to toxins and compare how long he lasted to someone unexposed?

His head felt light, and he became aware that he hadn't been breathing in a long time. He sucked in a breath, aware that he may be inhaling poisons that will eventually kill him, but he would die with oxygen anyway, right?

If the CCPD, KCPD, SCPD, and Oliver never came to defeat Eiling, how long had he been unconscious this time? The last time he had such a vivid dream, he had been out for months. Had it been the same amount of time this time? Maybe even longer?

He wasn't obviously pregnant this time, but it might be too early. He blinked; maybe it hadn't been as long as he thought? Or maybe they were holding back on that.

He had been dreaming then. The entire thing had been a dream. In all honesty, he should have expected that; Eiling had told him that there was no way anyone from his past was still looking for him. Joe wasn't looking for him; Iris wasn't looking for him. Cisco wasn't looking either, and neither was Eddie. Singh had replaced him, and no one would miss him.

That was just reality.

Closing his eyes, he begged for Morpheus to take him back to that ignorant dream he had. He yearned for just a moment more of believing that there was actual affection within their pack.

And just like that, darkness welcomed him.

Minutes later, a doctor entered the room, followed by a group of visitors.

"What happened?" Iris demanded, sitting herself down right next to the omega.

"We cannot be certain what exactly happened, but it seems like a suicide attempt." Dr. Thompkins was blatant.

Joe winced. He remembered his foster son's tendencies after his mother's death during his teenage years, and he had desperately hoped that this wouldn't happen. They had just been talking about it for God's sake!

"Do you get that from the-" Eddie gestured to the thick bandage covering the scarlet speedster's right arm.

She nodded. "He cut himself fairly deeply there as well as ripped out all thirty-two of the stitches in his abdomen. Somehow, he has made himself get an infection down there, most likely from the ripping, so we have him on antibiotics for that. We restitched his abdomen and his arm and have given him some blood transfusions."

"Will he have to go to the...Garza Center I believe?" Caitlin had come along with them upon hearing the news. Since Barry was unconscious, she assumed it was safe to see him without him freaking out about her presence.

"It is required in these circumstances that an psychological evaluation will take place, but we won't rush it for him. In the event that he is qualified to be transferred to the Garza Center for Mental Health, he will either be under 24/7 watch in the in patient facility or in the partial hospitalization program. In the partial program, he will be allowed to travel between here and home Monday through Friday." The doctor explained.

"Will we still be allowed to visit him if he can't come home?" Cisco swallowed nervously.

Dr. Thompkins nodded. "There are visiting hours that can be scheduled for each patient, yes."

"When will we find out?" Iris bit her lip.

"Whenever Mr. Allen is ready." The doctor reported. "Captain Singh did some investigating after the ambulance arrived, so if you would like to hear the results of that thus far, he has sent them to the hospital via encrypted email."

Joe looked impressed. "Yes, please. We need to know what happened."

The doctor nodded in understanding and opened it. "We already know what he physically did to himself, but the circumstances were all off. There were no signs of a note or anything common in those committing suicide."

"Could someone else have done this to him?" Eddie demanded.

She shrugged. "Maybe, but it says here that there were a few signs of a struggle and evidence of not one but two speedsters in the room."

"Two speedsters?" Cisco's eyes met the other's.

"The Reverse Flash." Caitlin swallowed.

"Unfortunately, the electrical activity common in the presence of both speedsters wasn't found in all of the blood, so Singh believes that the second speedster showed up after Mr. Allen did this." The doctor frowned.

Eddie's fist tightened. "He was taunting him."

"Maybe." Joe's eyes flitted over. "Nora wasn't harmed, was she?"

"Miss West-Thawne did not receive any injuries and is currently under the care of Captain Singh and his husband until one of you can pick her up." The doctor confirmed this.

"Someone should go get her, but someone needs to stay here too." Iris mentioned.

Caitlin volunteered. "I will. If Barry wakes up, he won't be happy to see me anyway."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy, and suggestions stimulate my creativity! :)
> 
> Sorry for any inconsistencies in the hospital procedures cause I don't have a medical degree nor do I know how hospitals truly workkkk


	19. Caitlin and Nora

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caitlin gets Nora and tries to distract herself from the pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, so sorry if ooc...

"Dr. Snow!" Singh looked relieved as he and his husband approached the doctor.

Nora was safe and sound, swaddled in a lime green blanket. Caitlin took her carefully.

"How is he doing?" The Captain inquired.

The doctor frowned and sighed. "They think he'll recover, but they'll want to have him psychologically evaluated."

Singh bit his lip but nodded. "I get that. Will you be going back to the hospital?"

Caitlin shook her head morosely. "No. Barry doesn't react well to me nowadays, so I don't think it would be a good idea for me to be there when he wakes up." She spoke regretfully.

Meanwhile, Barry was swirling in darkness. His daughter, his baby girl Nora had been alone with the Reverse Flash, and he didn't know whether or not she was okay. They hadn't told him anything. Or had he imagined the entire thing? Was his child instead in the grasp of Eiling and his men? He would never know for sure.

In his dreams, Nora was always killed for some reason. Did this mean that she would die soon? In them, she appeared to be about seven years old. That was older than she was now but much younger than what Barry would prefer.

Did that mean that his child would be taken from him for some reason or another? He wouldn't let anyone. He'd rather die before that happened; they'd have to get her over his dead body.

He tried to run away from where he was, but he was shot back into reality. He was in a room smelling of chemicals, strapped to a bed with his powers repressed. The light shone brightly in his face, and he blinked desperately to try to ease himself into the light.

People were talking; he was not alone. Who was there? The voices sounded familiar.

As the shapes became more prominent, he began to recognize more and more people. Iris. Joe. Eddie. Cisco. All of them were there.

All of them did nothing as his powers were stripped from him, as he was strapped to the bed in front of them. How dare they?

Were they even on his side? Or had they been working for Eiling all along? Barry bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, and the metallic taste filled his mouth. Truly, he must be alone. Eiling had warned him that he had gotten Eddie to donate his sperm, but this was even more proof. His pack and his foster father had all been working with them the entire time.

"Barry!" Iris noticed that he was awake and smiled down at him. There were tears in her eyes. She looked concerned about something.

The scarlet speedster stubbornly refused to respond to her. It would not end well if he said anything wrong.

"How are you doing, bud?" Cisco approached him cautiously.

Barry narrowed his eyes. His friend was probably worried that he would lash out, perhaps concerned that the power dampeners were not working properly. He couldn't lash out, so why was he being careful?

"He's not talking again." He hissed towards the others like it wasn't obvious.

Eddie sat down next to him. "Hey, Barry. I know we weren't around a lot lately, but we promise that we're going to be here and pay really close attention to you."

So, they'd be the experimenters, and they would take close notes on the experiment. Barry looked at the ceiling.

"Son, I'm sorry you had to go through this. I'm so proud of you for making it this far. Please go the full way." Joe pleaded.

The forensic scientist bit back a retort. He wasn't Joe's son. He never was. Joe might have been the one who took him in, but he was the one who arrested his real father for false charges. Now, he couldn't get Henry Allen back out if he tried.

"Barry," It was Iris again. "Can you talk to us?"

They might be testing to see whether or not he could physically speak in whatever conditions this counted as. Or maybe they wanted to know what he would say? Regardless, he would not give in. They would not get an answer.

The reporter sighed. "We'll be here when you want to talk."

On the other side of town, Caitlin unstrapped Nora from her baby seat before turning toward the imposing fortress in front of her. Iron Heights. This was the place that held Henry Allen, an innocent man, against his will, and it was partially her job to free him.

But for now, the best she could do is inform him what happened and introduce his granddaughter to him for the first time.

Soon enough, she was sat down in front of Henry Allen. She had had to argue with the staff to let her see him since she wasn't immediate family, but luckily, she had won them over.

"Hi! It's Caitlin." She started off as Henry sat down. "And this is Nora." She presented her to the grandfather.

Nora was certainly awake. Her eyes were blue; her hair, auburn. She blinked her large eyes at her grandfather before pushing a small hand against the glass.

Henry smiled, genuinely smiled, for the first time in a very long while and placed his hand up against hers.

Caitlin blinked back tears. It was a beautiful moment, but nothing could last forever.

She had news to give to the scarlet speedster's father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make me happy! :)


	20. Evaluation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry gets evaluated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, so sorry if anyone is OOC.

The next time Barry came around to consciousness, his pack wasn't there anymore. Upon first glance, he thought that the room was vacant, but there definitely was a figure lurking in the shadows.

"Mr. Allen, it is wonderful to see you awake." If was a female's voice.

The scarlet speedster stiffened. What did this person want with him? What sort of experiment was he going to have to endure?

"I have some questions that I would like you to answer honestly." She pulled out a pen and a clipboard.

Barry narrowed his eyes. If he truly never left Eiling's, then, he shouldn't answer or cooperate. Eventually, they had to get sick of him, right? And then, they will get rid of him, and the torture would be over.

"Mr. Allen, do you or anyone in your family have a history of drug abuse?" Her voice was gentle.

The forensic scientist looked confused. This wasn't the sort of question the doctors at Eiling's facility would ask; they would easily be able of gathering the information from their files. After all, they wouldn't trust their experiments to answer truthfully.

Or maybe that was the experiment? They could be asking questions that they already know the answer to in order to test to see if he would answer it correctly.

"Hmm." He realized it had been a couple minutes since the question was asked. "Very well. Do you or your family have a history of depression or anxiety?"

Now, that question should be fairly obvious. He had been to enough psychiatrists in his life to answer that question for him.

"Have you been abused either physically, verbally, emotionally, or sexually?" She phrased.

Barry blinked. This questioniarre seemed very similar to the ones that he would take during his adolescent years before being admitted to a shrink. Maybe they were testing to see how he would react when faced with reminders from the past?

Or maybe this really was a psychological evaluation. If he really did escape Eiling, if Joe and Eddie really did rescue him and Nora, if he really did what Constance told him to do.....wouldn't it only be logical for him to be evaluated?

What truly happened? Was he really rescued, or was it all a dream? Barry found himself wavering; he didn't truly know what he had gone through anymore. His most recent wounds could have been the result of him following Constance's commands, but it could also stem from an experiment done on him while he was unconscious. Truly, the scarlet speedster did not know what was real anymore.

"Are you suicidal or homicidal?" She inquired in a nonjudgmental manner.

Should he answer? Maybe it could prove his suspicions. After all, Eiling certainly would not allow treatment for any mental disorders to be given to the metahumans.

Or maybe he would use the treatment as an experiment....

"Have you harmed yourself or others, or do you have the intent to?"

Now, that question was a bit ridiculous. If he had actually followed Constance's orders, then, he would have hurt himself. He looked at the lady before glancing back to the heavy bandages on his abdomen. The forensic scientist gave her an incredulous look.

"Right." She bit her lip. "Are you experiencing any sort of hallucination? Hearing things, seeing things, etc?"

He did not respond.

"Are you able to distinguish between what is and is not real?"

Barry's breathing slowed. Wasn't this entire mental debate with himself proof enough that he didn't know? He couldn't be sure he was in Eiling's facility, but he couldn't be sure he wasn't at the same time.

He let out a breathy "No."

The lady nodded her head. "Well, Mr. Allen, you do qualify for the Garza Center's in-patient hospitalization program. In it, you will be monitored 24/7 until you are stable. You will have a doctor and meet with them once daily-"

The scarlet speedster shook his head fiercely and started fighting the restraints on him. He couldn't go there. He knew shrinks; they were basically prisons. Everything was locked, and the only other people there were doctors. It was Hell.

"You have nothing to be afraid of, Mr. Allen. The staff are well-trained, and the system is designed to make sure that you are not hurt while there." She attempted to comfort him while also pressing a button on a wristband.

Did Eiling give her that to press when she felt overwhelmed by her experiment? Did she have that in case he lashed out at her?

"Not all doctors are bad people, Mr. Allen. In the past, you have been hurt by them, but now, they are all trying to help you. There are good and bad doctors just like there are good and bad people because doctors are just that. People. You're a person too, Mr. Allen, so I hope you can learn to give them another chance."

The lady left the room, and Barry could hear her heels clacking on the tile floor.

Why were doctors always involved? Why couldn't he just go home?

Doctors had been a part of his life forever. His father is one, and so is a member of his pack. He had been in and out of shrinks too many times to count, and they were all around him while he was comatose. Now, he was about to get launched into a new sea of doctors once more.

However, the lady did say something. She said he was a person and the same as the doctors.

Those at Eiling's facility would never say that. The metahumans were 'it' and experiments. They were not human, but she said that he was.

Perhaps it wasn't a dream. Perhaps he had actually done those things.

Perhaps he was free from Eiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think? Comments make me happy!


	21. 0046 + 1283

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was the 46th. She was the 1283th.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, so sorry if anyone is ooc.

Caitlin sighed as she looked at the pack's newest addition. She wouldn't lie to herself and say that she hadn't been thinking about getting formally married to them. After all, they were pack now, and they certainly have been through thick and thin together. They truly loved each other.

Well, she wasn't quite sure if Barry loved her. She hoped he still did deep inside, but every time he saw her, he would react negatively.

That did not change her thoughts, and that did not change what they were doing. The CCPD had been carefully going over all the files that Eiling had on the metahumans to try to track down more of the corrupt doctors, and Captain Singh was bringing in her, Eddie, Joe, Iris, and Cisco to look at some of them to see if they could help pinpoint the criminals behind the atrocities.

Eddie and Joe were sitting beside her, not having to travel far to get to the office. Iris and Cisco said that they would be there in about five minutes based on their current location.

Those five minutes were taking forever. The three men and her just stared at something on the wall or the floor and ignored the stacks of files on the Captain's desk.

Singh coughed. "How's Barry doing?"

"It's official. He's going to Garza." Joe bit his lip. "He hated it there when he was younger, but I hope they can help him."

The Captain understood, having seen Barry and Iris basically grow up around the CCPD headquarters. "Well, if there is anything I can do, just give me a call." He replied.

Suddenly, Nora started crying loudly. Caitlin sighed.

"What does she want? Food?" Eddie turned to his daughter instantaneously.

"No, she's been doing this a lot recently. She wants Barry." The doctor held the child close to her, silently apologizing to her that she couldn't be around the speedster.

The detectives looked discouraged. "What if she doesn't remember Barry by the time he gets out?"

"She will." Caitlin insisted. "Trust me, she will."

Iris knocked on the door before entering, followed by Cisco.

"Hi, guys." She swallowed upon seeing the stack of papers. "Shall we start?"

Singh nodded and picked up a random file from the stack.

"Subject 0173." He winced at the title. It wasn't even their name, just a random number at the top. Her name was on it, but it was just a side note, nothing of importance.

Joe straightened his back. "Do they have a name?" He took out a notepad, prepared to write names down if it turned out that they were dead.

"Constance Margaret Davis. Deceased at the age of 32 due to the facility, leaving behind her husband and her son."

The elder detective copied down her name, prepared to have to call the Davis family to inform them of their loss. Although, they might have already realized it by now.

"How many people did Eiling kill?" Iris's eyes flashed eerily.

"Far too many." Joe swallowed. "Anything that could give us a clue as to any of the doctors there?"

Singh looked through the papers. "She was a beta, and her primary ability was the imitation of others' voices. Eiling thought it would be a useful tactic for legal espionage, so he was looking for a way to get her powers in a drug. Her cause of death was listed as a psychotic breakdown leading to her stabbing herself with a pen in the arm."

"Did anyone sign off on her death certificate?" Caitlin questioned.

"Well, they don't really have a death certificate, but they did unfortunately do postmortem experiments." Singh made a face. "There are some pretty gruesome pictures to go along with it."

Iris's breath hitched. What if they randomly came across Barry's? It could have information they didn't want to know, and it could have pictures just like those.

"The body was treated as evidence through a chain of command although it only passed through one person before going to Eiling for disposal." The Captain looked up at them. "It does not say what the method of disposal was however, so there may be bodies for the families. Mrs. Davis was signed off by one Dr. Michelle Gonzalez. I need her in for questioning." Singh looked at Eddie, and he wrote the name down.

"Should we know what kind of experiments were done on them?" The younger detective asked.

"We don't want to necessarily tell their families that unless they explicitly ask. We don't want to upset them." He shook his head.

Joe opened a file. "This one is titled Subject 0453. He was an alpha named Eli Natsumi who could speak directly to animals. The experiments done on him involved putting him in a cage with a ravenous wild animal and seeing if he could stop it from eating him. Fortunately, he lived through all of the experiments done on him and is currently in the Faraway Hospital in Keystone City. No doctor ever signed off on an experiment or other event."

Cisco sighed. "We didn't get much information out of that one. It seems like they really wanted to keep their operatives' identity secret."

"Yeah, they wouldn't want anyone getting caught, so in the event of the facility closing, they might be able to find a way to continue the experiments." Eddie nonchalantly responded.

That got Cisco thinking however. Barry had seen most of the doctors, so despite his irrational fear of all of them, he'd know which ones to look out for. If the doctors were still in hiding, is it that far of a stretch that some of them could in fact be working in the hospital Barry was at? Maybe Barry was reacting to specific people he had seen in the past and not just every doctor.

He voiced his concerns.

Joe seemed troubled by the idea. "We could do some background checks I guess, but those won't come up with any of Eiling's work. We'll just have to sort through these and hope that we get them all, or if Barry is coherent enough, we could ask him and see if he can identify some."

Singh didn't like the idea of his forensic scientist possible being exposed to the same people who traumatized him in the place he was supposed to be getting better.

He picked up another file. "Subject 0009."

"They must have been one of the first ones Eiling captured." Iris breathed.

Joe nodded. "Presumably."

Singh continued "Her name is Georgia Mariela Lopez. Female alpha with the ability to control light, and Eiling was interested in exploiting that for surprise attacks. She was also in an experiment involving fertility with the help of Subject 0046, and it is noted that they were not permitted to have actual sex."

"Who is 0046?" Caitlin inquired.

"It doesn't say." The Captain shook his head in disappointment. "We'll have to cross reference it later. A notable event was her psychotic breakdown where she begged Subject 0046 for information they didn't have, but she was sedated by Dr. Ulysses Coburn and is currently recovering in the Queen Hospital of Starling City."

Cisco raised his hand as Joe wrote the name down.

"You don't need to do that here, Cisco. It isn't a school." Singh gestured for him to go on.

"Should we look at 0046's file next?" He asked.

The Captain shook his head. "It wouldn't be a good use of time since there is no way we would be able to find it quickly."

"It's right there." He pointed at a file sticking out a couple down.

"Oh." Singh carefully removed the file from the stack and opened it. "Oh." He repeated, eyes widening.

Iris looked concerned. "What is it?"

"It's Mr. Allen's." He replied.

"That's Barry's file?" Eddie confirmed, and Singh nodded. "He was part of a fertility experiment?"

The Captain acknowledged him. "Yes, Eiling was trying to see if there was a difference between normal alpha sperm and metahuman alpha sperm." He opened the folder. "Do you guys want to know what is in here?"

"We have to." Caitlin's voice cracked.

"Subject 0046 is Bartholomew Henry Allen, male omega with the power of speed. Eiling was interested in harnessing that speed to give them an edge in weapons making and enhance the speed of soldiers' brains. He participated in that fertility study, and the result was that he was impregnated by the normal alpha's sperm, or Detective Thawne's. The reproductive specialist was Dr. Barbara Mandy Hopkins, and his labor was triggered a month early due to mistakes made during an experiment involving pain tolerance and healing speed. He successfully gave birth to Subject 1283." Singh finished all the relevant information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suggestions and comments make me happy!


	22. The Doctor is In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry gets moved to the Garze Center for Mental Health.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, so sorry if anyone is out of character!

In what seemed like no time at all, several months had passed. For Iris, it was simply a blur of going to work, working, and visiting Barry for some pack time; unfortunately, he still has not taken well to Caitlin. It seemed like he had developed a phobia of doctors and all things medical related after what he had experienced at Eiling's facility, and Iris couldn't blame him. The scarlet speedster was very strong, but what had been done to him was pure torture.

She only hoped that the Garza Center would be able to help him. Barry hadn't had another incident since he was checked into the hospital as far as she knew, so he was finally healing properly. Even with his powers, it still took longer than she would have liked.

Nora hadn't been able to visit Barry very often, and that was certainly something the forensic scientist picked up on. She was still too young and susceptible to all the pathogens around the hospital, but maybe she could start coming more often once he is moved. That was supposed to be today, and they would be able to visit the speedster once he fully moves in. Apparently, he could expect to have a room-mate just like he did in the adolescent department all those years ago, and she hoped that they wouldn't cause Barry any more harm than he has already been through.

She was currently writing an article on Eiling's facility; since he was killed and the operation was destroyed, her father had finally relaxed a bit on his stance about her reporting on the subject. After all, there were a couple others working on similar stories, so there would be a less likely chance of her being targeted anyway. Plus, her boss was kind of getting on her tail about the Flash's location and what had been happening to him since they knew she was closer than the average person to the scarlet speedster. As of now, she had not written anything, and she would not write anything unless Barry expressed explicit permission.

Meanwhile, Barry sat with his legs crossed on the familiar mattress that he hoped he would never have to see again. The mattress itself was blue with only a threadbare, fairly long towel thrown over top of it far a blanket. The pillow was practically nonexistent as if he were merely sleeping on a bunched up pillowcase. The wooden bed frame had holes ever couple inches, vividly reminding him of where he would be stuck if they decided to handcuff him to the bed.

It was quiet, to quiet. Obviously, the rest of the patients were off the unit at this current time, but since it was his first day here, he was marked as a Level 1 patient. Most of the hospitals the scarlet speedster had been to had some sort of hierarchy or system to reward or punish the patients based off of their behavior. Level 1 patients included those who arrived that day and those who were acting out too far for too long, and they were confined to the unit. They could not leave to go anywhere, not even the cafeteria. Level 2 patients were allowed to leave the unit if they were accompanied by at least one chaperone, and that was the one most people stayed at here. In order to get to Level 3, they would have to fill out an application about why they thought they deserved to be moved up, and those qualified individuals would be able to go to the Rec Room after dinner and have an extra phone call home.

In the past, Barry had never seen the point of trying to become a Level 3, but perhaps he would consider it this time.

There were a lot of patients right now, more than any of the staff had seen in the past, and a large majority of the patients were metahumans. Barry hadn't seen any of the patients yet, but he picked up on that sort of energy, that constant buzz in his ear that told him that very powerful beings were nearby.

There were two other beds in the room, but he hadn't bothered to check the board to see who used them. He fiddled with the tie on his scrubs (he had been upgraded from a mere hospital gown due to his healing wounds) and laid on his bed. Who should he call tonight? Every night, every patient was allowed to call someone for a ten minute conversation, and every other day, they would have an hour for visitors to come in and see their loved ones. He decided that he would call Joe; at the time of the phone call, most of the people he cared about would be around his foster father anyway.

The door swung shut, and darkness enveloped the room. Barry didn't give it much thought as he was too concentrated on the way the shadows danced and seemed to be almost life-like. The scarlet speedster looked around the room hesitantly, and his eyes eventually fell to the floor. The grayish tiles were slowly becoming redder and redder as very convincing liquid rose from it, originating from a female's body in the middle of the room. It was Constance with her strawberry blond hair and pen sticking straight out of her arm.

Two minutes.

That was how long it had taken Constance to die in the facility. They probably could have saved her, the doctors, but the forensic scientist cynically believed that they were doing some sort of experiment. Which, in reality, they most likely were.

He remembered screaming and yelling at the doctors just standing aside and taking notes as the life bled out of the woman's body, and he remembered how easily they ignored him as if he were a speck of dust or dirt. He was inconsequential to them; he didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was how the metahumans would react to the experiments given to them.

The forensic scientist flicked his eyes over to one of the beds and saw a doctor standing over a patient who was strapped down like some sort of animal. Every now and then, they would flip up a slice of skin, revealing the grotesque innards underneath, and the doctor would stare for a few moments and take some notes and close the flap. Barry hazily remembered one of these horrific experiments that he had seen while he was in labor. He didn't know all of the details, but they had sewn the large intestine in the small intestine's place and the small intestine in the large intestine's place. The duodenum neutralized the acidic contents of the stomach with a very basic solution, and without its protection, the colon was slowly being degraded by the acidic juices of the stomach.

Barry shivered and looked away. He didn't want to be reminded of anything else, but when he closed his eyes, that was when the voices started. They were all familiar, belonging to either Eiling or one of the doctors. Whenever Barry was unconscious, they would always speak over him, and if he woke up without alerting them, they would generally continue the conversation. Normally, it was about things the scarlet speedster wished he were never a part of. He had awoken to them discussing how much skin they were going to burn off of him and to them discussing how they were going to go about impregnating him.

In a vain attempt to prevent this, the forensic scientist opened his eyes as wide as he could. Why wasn't his pack there? They had promised that nothing bad would happen to him while they were gone, but Barry certainly didn't consider this to be good. And just like that, just as he opened his eyes, he saw them. He saw Joe. He saw Eddie. He saw Iris and Cisco and Caitlin all standing over him wearing the same exact outfits that the doctors normally wore at Eiling's facility. Caitlin was holding Nora, his baby, but she had an emotionless look in her eyes. The rest of them had faces of cruelty as they stared down at the scarlet speedster.

Suddenly, Caitlin turned and walked away from the group, and the rest of them moved out of the way, making sure that Barry could see what she was doing. Confidently, the doctor lowered his baby girl into the pool of blood he was still seeing from Constance, stood up, and walked back to the others. He tried to get up, tried to go to his daughter, but he found that he couldn't. It was almost like he was strapped down like he had been at Eiling's facility, and soon enough, right in front of his eyes, his only child just melted. Her physical form collapsed into a liquid one, and she joined the blood on the floor.

Barry felt tears spring into his eyes as he tried to scream out, but no sound was heard from him. He bucked against the imaginary restraints holding him down and cursed out those he would normally call family. The doctor version of Joe shrugged and made his way to leave the room, stepping in the pool of blood, in the pool of his daughter, on the way out.

The scarlet speedster slammed his pillow onto his face, but that just brought back the voices of the doctors and Eiling. If only he were allowed to go home. He was generally fine at home, but in hospitals, he could never be sure he was safe. Hospitals tended to trigger things like that.

He knew he had been getting hallucinations; after what had happened to him in his own house, it was kind of hard for him to deny it especially when he had that sort of experience. At home, he had only hallucinated a couple of times, but ever since he was taken back to the hospital, it had been practically nonstop.

And he just wanted it to stop. After all he had been through, the forensic scientist wanted some peace and some quiet in his forsaken life.

Soon enough, he would get that, but for now, he would be trapped in this prison-like hospital, not to see the light of day for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suggestions and comments make me happy!


	23. Level 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry is moved up to Level 2 and goes through the motions of the ward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing, so sorry if anyone is out of character. The mental hospital is based off of my own experiences, but not all of them are the same.

Barry flexed his fingers as he sat down in one of the chairs; his hand was far from healed. However, they had eventually removed the metallic pieces holding it together, so the scarlet speedster considered that one a plus.

He was sitting in the main room of the unit. Despite having made it through the night and therefore being upgraded to Level 2, most of the group therapy sessions would be done in that area. All of the chairs in the room were put in a circle, and the tables were pushed out of the way. Slowly but surely, some more people entered the room, a couple of them holding blankets around themselves.

Due to the sheer amount of people in the hospital, the sessions were being separated into different groups. That way, everyone could have a chance to talk, and there would be less people for the staff to handle at once.

One person started speaking. She was wearing different clothing, clothing that would never have been allowed to be worn by the patients. Obviously, this was the staff member on hand for this group session.

"Some of you know me, but to those who don't, I'm Ms. Hannah," She smiled kindly to each and every one of them. "I see some new faces today. Why don't we go around the circle, state our names, and...how about what you hope to get out of this program. Then, we'll do our daily checks." She decided. "Tiffany, you can start."

The other woman right next to her, Tiffany, nodded and sat up a bit straighter. Her back was still incredibly curved though as if she was trying to hide. "'M Tiffany." She mumbled. "I want to...manage my anxiety and open up to my family."

"Very good." Ms. Hannah checked her name off the list on the clipboard.

"I'm Brandon." He shrugged. "I want to get out of here."

The social worker looked up. "Yes, Brandon, but what skills do you want to learn by then?"

"I don't know....to control my anger I guess."

"Thank you."

Everyone in the circle continued to say their names and their goals although most of their goals were generic and not thought out well. Then, it got to Barry.

"Ah! A new face. Do you mind introducing yourself to us?" Ms. Hannah had an encouraging smile on her face.

"My name is Barry." The scarlet speedster hesitated. "I want to be able to be around my pack and my daughter."

She understood this. "Anything in specific you want to accomplish to get this to happen?"

Barry looked down. "I would want to.....be able to differentiate between reality and hallucinations."

"Thanks, Barry." Ms. Hannah checked his name off of the list, and the lady next to him introduced herself as Kylie.

Kylie. Just like his cousin, the one who had cancer. She would have been all right if she was at home with her family all the time right? It wasn't right for her to die in the hands of the doctors at a hospital.....She should have been with her mother and father and aunt and uncle and _him._ But she wasn't. She was in a sterile building with walls of white.

If the doctors couldn't have saved her, they should have granted her time with her family. Instead, they made false promises of destroying the leukemia and gave her false hope of being able to go to school again. He couldn't remember much; he was six at the time. However, he could clearly visualize her face when she realized that her hair was falling out, when she felt bump on her skin, when she realized that she was getting worse and not better.

Of course, he hadn't realized that that was the cause of her pain then. He hadn't yet understood what death even meant.

Oh, how far he had come.

"-arry? Barry?" Ms. Hannah called out to him.

"Yes?" He focused back on her.

The social worker smiled at him. "We're just doing our daily checks. Julia, would you like to say it?"

Julia was a dark haired, dark skinned woman with kind yet haunted eyes. "Okay. Barry, homicidal, suicidal?"

Barry starkly remembered all these checks too. "No." He decided.

"Hearing things, seeing things?" She continued.

"Remember to be honest, Barry. That's one of the most important things in life." He glanced briefly to the side and saw his cousin, tubes in her nose and sticking out of her arms.

The scarlet speedster took a deep breath. "Yes."

"Both or just one?"

"Both."

He realized how much time had passed. They had been writing names down on the white board hanging against the wall with all the daily information, and Brandon opened the marker and wrote "AH, VH" next to his name.

"Any desire to hurt yourself or others?" She carried on with the check.

"No."

"If so, will you contract?" Julia crossed her legs and adjusted how she was sitting in her chair.

Barry knew what that meant. If he had dangerous thoughts or did dangerous things, they would make him sign a paper saying that he wouldn't do it again, and he would do everything he could do stay safe. It was called a safety contract. "Sure." He shrugged, not really caring then. He had broken a couple contracts in his time in this world already.

"Thank you for contracting. What is your rate for today?"

By that, they meant on a scale of 1-10. Barry could never figure out precisely what he was, but it wasn't like it mattered anyway to him. "I don't know....a five?"

"What's your goal for today?" She asked.

The forensic scientist shrugged. He knew most people came up with generic stuff anyway, so he just said "To manage anxiety."

Julia said some for stuff, but his turn speaking was done. He looked at the board and zoned out. They continued throughout the circle.

_Tiffany: SH, 6, Think positively_

_Brandon: HT, 6, Be less rebellious towards staff_

_Julia: AH, ST, 4, Speak to staff if I'm feeling unsafe_

_Angela: 9, Remain calm and positive_

_Kylie: HT, SH, 5, Call my girlfriend_

_Matt: VH, 8, Find more coping skills_

_Melanie: 10, Talk about future discharge with my psychiatrist_

_James: VH, AH, 7, Listen to directions_

_Barry: AH, VH, 5, Manage anxiety_

_Alex: ST, SH, 4, Remain focused and work on my concentration_

_Barbara: AH, HT, 6, Identify positive traits in others_

Soon enough, they got through everyone. Clearly, Melanie was most likely getting ready to be discharged, and Angela might not be too far behind. However, relapses did happen occasionally, so he was hesitant to make conclusions. The SH stood for 'self harm.' The HT stood for 'homicidal thoughts.' The AH stood for 'auditory hallucinations.' The ST stood for 'suicidal thoughts.' The VH stood for 'visual hallucinations.'

Ms. Hannah spoke once more. "Thank you all for complying. We have one more daily sheet to fill out, but I've decided to push that off a little bit today. You all seem a bit tired, so let's play a game. Something with movement." She paused. "Any opinions?"

"We could play Twister!" Angela clapped her hands together.

Melanie groaned. "We are not playing Twister, Angie. Remember where we are?"

"Right." She bit her lip.

The social worker moved on. "How about we play the Great Wind Blows?"

James furrowed his brow. "I've never played before."

"Oh! Well, one person stands in the center and says 'The great wind blows for everyone who-' and then you get to fill in the blank with whatever things applies to you as well. Everyone who has done that must stand and find another seat, and whoever is left standing at the end is the new person in the middle." She explained simply.

They decided to play that. Ms. Hannah got rid of one of the chairs and stood in the middle since none of them volunteered to go first.

"The great wind blows for those who have a pet." She stated.

Barbara, Melanie, and Matt all stood up, and they all started walking slowly to a seat.

"Move fast if you want a seat, guys!" Ms. Hannah sat in one of the chairs.

Eventually, Barbara was left in the middle. "The great wind blows for those who are metahumans."

Barry groaned internally and stood up to find another chair. Luckily, Alex was one of the metahumans, so he just took a step to the side and sat down right next to where he originally was. The others up were Alex, Tiffany, Julia, Matt, and Brandon, but Brandon was the one left in the middle.

Ms. Hannah noticed his lack of motion. "From now on, you all have to find a seat that isn't right next to your old one. Move around a bit! Sit next to new people."

The forensic scientist rolled his eyes at the ground. Of course he would be the one called out. It didn't really matter where he sat anyway by that logic; everyone was new to him.

"The great wind blows for all of those with a twin." He shrugged. Tiffany stood up, and Brandon sat in her place.

"The great wind blows for everyone who has a daughter." She walked slowly towards Barry's place before he even stood up.

Barry cursed. He had mentioned Nora in the group a little bit earlier, and obviously, Tiffany either remembered that or had some sort of power based around knowing information from other people.

Julia had also stood up, and she was a little ways away from Barry. He simply stood up and went to her chair, bored out of his mind.

After what seemed like eons of torture, Ms. Hannah walked around with the daily log and a pencil. The pencil would have to be returned to her at the end of the session naturally to prevent it from being used as a weapon in the future.

The daily log consisted of the same basic questions that the check had included, but a couple more were in it on top of that. He breezed through the part he already had information on. He got to the question: "Are you in pain right now?" and merely checked yes before describing it on the lines below. Knowing the staff at Garza, they probably wouldn't care; when he was a teenager, they never did. He had even walked out of the facility with a broken finger, and they hadn't bothered to check it even when he relentlessly asked for a check up.

They didn't care. No one did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suggestions and comments make me happy!

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I have written mpreg or abo, so if anyone has any suggestions, please tell me! I want to make this story as good as possible. And if the beginning seems a bit fast-paced, sorry again. I'm not really good at writing the part where they come together, but I'm trying! I'm better after the relationship starts.


End file.
